Gut Microbiome Profiles and Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Findings from recent studies suggest that the community of microbes residing in the human body is important in disease etiology; however, it remains unclear whether personal factors modulate human microbial composition. Studies based on animal models indicate that differences in composition might be attributed to sex-mediated effects. We analyzed the relationship of sex, adiposity, and dietary fiber intake with gut microbial composition using fecal samples from human subjects. We explored the associations of these factors with metrics of community composition and specific taxon abundances. We found that men and women had significantly different microbial community composition and that women had reduced abundance of a major phylum. Adiposity was associated with gut microbiome composition and specifically in women but not in men. Fiber from fruits and vegetables and fiber from beans were each associated with increased abundance of specific bacterial taxa. These findings provide initial indications that sex, adiposity, and dietary fiber might play important roles in influencing the human gut microbiome. Better understanding of these factors may have significant implications for gastrointestinal health and disease prevention.]]>
Schedule C - Diet HistoryWe included 82 subjects for study among 94 control participants from an original case-control study of colorectal cancer (240 total subjects) with at least 100 mg of lyophilized fecal material available. Subjects with less than 1000 microbial sequence reads or with missing or extreme caloric intake (≤500 or ≥5500kcal/day) were excluded.]]>