Gut microbiota composition correlates with diet and health in the elderly

Marcus J. Claesson, Ian B. Jeffery, Susana Conde, Susan E. Power, Eibhlís M. O’Connor, Siobhán Cusack, Hugh M. B. Harris, Mairead Coakley, Bhuvaneswari Lakshminarayanan, Orla O’Sullivan, Gerald F. Fitzgerald, Jennifer Deane, Michael O’Connor, Norma Harnedy, Kieran O’Connor, Denis O’Mahony, Douwe van Sinderen, Martina Wallace, Lorraine Brennan, Catherine Stanton, Julian R. Marchesi, Anthony P. Fitzgerald, Fergus Shanahan, Colin Hill, R. Paul Ross and Paul W. O’Toole ()
Additional contact information
Marcus J. Claesson: University College Cork
Ian B. Jeffery: University College Cork
Susana Conde: University College Cork
Susan E. Power: University College Cork
Eibhlís M. O’Connor: University College Cork
Siobhán Cusack: University College Cork
Hugh M. B. Harris: University College Cork
Mairead Coakley: Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co, Cork, Ireland
Bhuvaneswari Lakshminarayanan: Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co, Cork, Ireland
Orla O’Sullivan: Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co, Cork, Ireland
Gerald F. Fitzgerald: University College Cork
Jennifer Deane: University College Cork
Michael O’Connor: Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland
Norma Harnedy: Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland
Kieran O’Connor: St. Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, Cork, Ireland
Denis O’Mahony: Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland
Douwe van Sinderen: University College Cork
Martina Wallace: Institute of Food and Health, University College Dublin
Lorraine Brennan: Institute of Food and Health, University College Dublin
Catherine Stanton: Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork
Julian R. Marchesi: School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK
Anthony P. Fitzgerald: University College Cork
Fergus Shanahan: Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork
Colin Hill: University College Cork
R. Paul Ross: Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork
Paul W. O’Toole: University College Cork

Nature, 2012, vol. 488, issue 7410, 178-184

Abstract: Abstract Alterations in intestinal microbiota composition are associated with several chronic conditions, including obesity and inflammatory diseases. The microbiota of older people displays greater inter-individual variation than that of younger adults. Here we show that the faecal microbiota composition from 178 elderly subjects formed groups, correlating with residence location in the community, day-hospital, rehabilitation or in long-term residential care. However, clustering of subjects by diet separated them by the same residence location and microbiota groupings. The separation of microbiota composition significantly correlated with measures of frailty, co-morbidity, nutritional status, markers of inflammation and with metabolites in faecal water. The individual microbiota of people in long-stay care was significantly less diverse than that of community dwellers. Loss of community-associated microbiota correlated with increased frailty. Collectively, the data support a relationship between diet, microbiota and health status, and indicate a role for diet-driven microbiota alterations in varying rates of health decline upon ageing.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11319 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:488:y:2012:i:7410:d:10.1038_nature11319

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature11319

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().