Inter-relationship between diet, lifestyle habits, gut microflora, and the equol-producer phenotype: baseline findings from a placebo-controlled intervention trial

Study information

Needs review

study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

30188331

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1097/GME.0000000000001202

URI

Authors

Yoshikata R, Myint KZ, Ohta H, Ishigaki Y

Journal

Menopause (New York, N.Y.)

Year

2019

OBJECTIVE: Equol is an active metabolite of isoflavones produced by gut microbiota. It is beneficial to health; however, equol-producing ability varies greatly among individuals. These variations depend on the host's gut microbiota and lifestyle habits including diet. We investigated the relationship between the gut microbiota, lifestyle habits including diet, and equol-producing ability in postmenopausal Japanese women. METHODS: We studied 58 postmenopausal Japanese women aged 48 to 69 years who visited the Sendai Medical Center in January, 2018. Self-administered questionnaires assessed their recent and remote food intake histories and lifestyle habits. Fecal microbiome analysis was performed using a next-generation sequencer. Urinary equol was measured using an immunochromatographic strip test. Women with urinary equol concentration >1.0 μM were defined as equol producers. RESULTS: Equol-producing bacteria were identified in 97% (56) of women; however, only 13 (22%) were equol producers. Equol producers showed significantly higher microflora diversity (P = 0.002), and significantly different recent and remote food intake patterns compared with equol nonproducers. Higher consumption of foods such as meat, fish, soy, vegetables, and Japanese snacks positively affected microbial diversity and equol production, whereas a high intake of Ramen and smoking showed negative effects. CONCLUSION: Equol production might not depend on the quantity, but on the quality of equol-producing bacteria. High microbial diversity might enhance equol production. Increasing microbial diversity through healthy lifestyle habits and habitual consumption of a wide variety of foods might be useful to maintain a healthy gut environment for equol production.

Experiment 1

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Curated date: 2021/01/10

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Subjects

Location of subjects: Japan

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Equol producer ("healhtier" diet)

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Equol NON producer ("unhealthier" diet)

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: cross sectional

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 45

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 13

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: raw counts

Statistical test: Linear Regression

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: decreased

Signature 1

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Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Lora Kasselman

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Source: Table 2, Table 3, and text

Description: TABLE 2. Comparisons of microbial results between equol producers and nonproducers

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Equol NON producer ("unhealthier" diet)

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Pseudomonadota

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Experiment 2

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Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Lab analysis

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances