The intestinal microbiome and extremes of atherosclerosis

Traditional risk factors for coronary heart disease explain only about half of the variance in atherosclerosis burden. We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to conduct a cross-sectional examination of the microbiota composition in a cohort of patients that were phenotyped for the burden of carotid atherosclerosis. Forty-four patient stool samples were collected and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene were paired-end sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq. Patients were segregated into two groups. One group had few risk factors, yet had severe carotid atherosclerosis. The other group had many risk factors, yet had little evidence of carotid atherosclerosis. No differences in the microbiota composition between patients in the two groups was observed.

传统冠心病危险因素仅能解释约一半的动脉粥样硬化负荷变异度。本研究采用16S核糖体RNA（16S rRNA）基因测序技术，对一组经颈动脉粥样硬化负荷表型分型的患者队列的微生物群组成展开横断面研究。本研究收集了44份患者粪便样本，并采用Illumina MiSeq测序平台对16S rRNA基因的V4区域进行双端测序。将患者分为两组：一组仅具有少量危险因素，却存在严重的颈动脉粥样硬化；另一组则具有较多危险因素，但颈动脉粥样硬化相关证据极少。两组患者的微生物群组成未观察到显著差异。