Intestinal microbiome of complement C3 knockout mice versus wildtypes

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of severe vision loss in the aged population. The etiology of AMD is multifactorial including nutritional factors, genetic variants mainly in the complement pathway, environmental risk factors and alterations in the intestinal microbiome. However, it remains unexplored whether there is an interdependency of these factors leading to the development of AMD. To investigate this issue, a shotgun metagenomics analysis of AMD patients and healthy controls as well as of complement C3 deficient mice and wildtypes was performed. Whereas the class Negativicutes was more abundant in patients, the genus Oscillibacter and Bacteroides species had a significantly higher prevalence in persons without AMD. Similar taxonomic features were identified that distinguished wildtype mice from C3 deficient mice.