Gut microbial characteristics of Acromegaly patients

Purpose: Studies on intestinal microbiota in acromegaly are scarce. The aim of this study was to characterize gut microbiome in patients with acromegaly.Method: Stool samples were collected from 11 patients diagnosed with acromegaly and 12 healthy controls matched for body mass index (BMI) and age after a 3-day standard diet. Clinical assessments and gut microbial composition assessments by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing were performed for both groups.Results: Alpha diversity did not show a difference between patients with acromegaly and healthy controls. Microbial community structure using beta diversity measurements, was found only significant in terms of Jaccard. Corresponding Firmicutes/Bacteroidota ratio was higher in acromegaly when compared to healthy controls. Mean relative abundance of Actinobacteriota was 2.3 fold higher in patient group. Eggerthellaceae, Christensenellaceae, Bacteroidaceae were among the significantly enriched families in patient group, while Butyricicoccaceae and Tannerellaceae were decreased. At genus level, the most discriminative features were enriched Prevotella_7, Bacteroides, Senegalimassilia, Enterohabdus, Family_XIII_AD3011_group, Howardella and Hungatella. On the other hand, Eubacterium_eligens_group and Butyrivibrio were the most discriminative genus for healthy controls, and significantly decreased in patients with acromegaly.No significant association found between individual genera and GH and IGF-1 levels.Conclusion: Although alpha and beta diversity did not create a significant difference between the two groups, significant differences were detected in the acromegaly group compared to healthy controls at family and genus levels. Results indicate that the microbial community difference between patients with acromegaly and healthy controls mainly relies on the compositional differences independent from abundance. Prospective studies are needed to elucidate the causal relationship between the microbial changes detected in acromegaly patients and the clinic.