Substantial Intestinal Microbiota differences between patients with Ulcerative Colitis from Ghana and Denmark. undefined

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a relapsing non-transmural inflammatory disease that is restricted to the colon and is characterized by flare-ups of bloody diarrhea. As the prevalence of UC increases in westernized countries by 3% each year, increased attention has been given to the role of intestinal microbiota and diet in UC. It has been speculated that there might be a link between environment, diet, microbiota, and the decreased prevalence of UC in Asia and Africa. In this study, we investigate intestinal microbiota diversity in healthy controls and patients with UC with and without active disease, from Ghana and Denmark. Our prokaryotic cluster and principal component analysis shows Danish healthy controls clustered together, but separate from healthy controls from Ghana, which are clustered together with Ghana and Danish UC patient groups. The Shannon diversity index for prokaryotes shows significantly increased diversity in Danish healthy controls and patients compared to the corresponding groups from Ghana. A significantly increased abundance of Escherichia coli was detected in healthy controls from Ghana in comparison to healthy controls from Denmark. Our data show a significantly increased abundance of eukaryotes species in the healthy control group from Ghana and Denmark compared to patient groups from Ghana and Denmark.

溃疡性结肠炎（Ulcerative Colitis, UC）是一种复发型非透壁性炎症性疾病，病变仅累及结肠，临床以血性腹泻发作为主要特征。随着西式化国家中UC的患病率以每年3%的速率增长，学界对肠道菌群与饮食在UC发病中的作用关注度日益提升。有研究推测，环境、饮食与肠道菌群的差异，或与亚洲、非洲地区UC患病率较低存在关联。本研究针对来自加纳与丹麦的健康对照者，以及伴或不伴活动期疾病的UC患者，对其肠道菌群多样性展开分析。本研究的原核生物聚类分析与主成分分析结果显示，丹麦健康对照者自成一类，而加纳健康对照者则与加纳及丹麦的UC患者群体聚为一类。原核生物的香农多样性指数（Shannon diversity index）结果表明，丹麦健康对照者与UC患者的菌群多样性均显著高于加纳对应组别。相较于丹麦健康对照者，加纳健康对照者的大肠杆菌（Escherichia coli）丰度显著升高。本研究数据还显示，加纳与丹麦的健康对照者群体的真核生物物种丰度，均显著高于两国的UC患者群体。