Associations Between Race, Perceived Psychological Stress, and the Gut Microbiota in a Sample of Generally Healthy Black and White Women: A Pilot Study on the Role of Race and Perceived Psychological Stress

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/07/15

study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

29901485

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1097/PSY.0000000000000614.

URI

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29901485/

Authors

Carson TL, Wang F, Cui X, Jackson BE, Van Der Pol WJ, Lefkowitz EJ, Morrow C, Baskin ML

Journal

Psychosomatic medicine

Year

2018

OBJECTIVE: Racial health disparities persist among black and white women for colorectal cancer. Understanding racial differences in the gut microbiota and related covariates (e.g., stress) may yield new insight into unexplained colorectal cancer disparities. METHODS: Healthy non-Hispanic black or white women (age ≥19 years) provided survey data, anthropometrics, and stool samples. Fecal DNA was collected and isolated from a wipe. Polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify the V4 region of the 16SrRNA gene and 250 bases were sequenced using the MiSeq platform. Microbiome data were analyzed using QIIME. Operational taxonomic unit data were log transformed and normalized. Analyses were conducted using linear models in R Package "limma." RESULTS: Fecal samples were analyzed for 80 women (M (SD) age = 39.9 (14.0) years, 47 black, 33 white). Blacks had greater average body mass index (33.3 versus 27.5 kg/m, p < .01) and waist circumference (98.3 versus 86.6 cm, p = .003) than whites. Whites reported more stressful life events (p = .026) and greater distress (p = .052) than blacks. Final models accounted for these differences. There were no significant differences in dietary variables. Unadjusted comparisons revealed no racial differences in alpha diversity. Racial differences were observed in beta diversity and abundance of top 10 operational taxonomic units. Blacks had higher abundances than whites of Faecalibacterium (p = .034) and Bacteroides (p = .038). Stress was associated with abundances of Bifidobacterium. The association between race and Bacteroides (logFC = 1.72, 0 = 0.020) persisted in fully adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS: Racial differences in the gut microbiota were observed including higher Bacteroides among blacks. Efforts to cultivate an "ideal" gut microbiota may help reduce colorectal cancer risk.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/07/15

Curated date: 2022/06/29

Curator: Kaluifeanyi101

Revision editor(s): Kaluifeanyi101, Claregrieve1, WikiWorks

Subjects

Location of subjects: United States of America

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: Ethnic group Ethnicity,race,Ethnic group,ethnic group

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: White Women

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Black Women

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Healthy non-Hispanic black females (age ≥19 years)

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 33

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 47

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): 90 days

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V4

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

Statistical Analysis

Statistical test: PERMANOVA

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)?: Yes

Confounders controlled for Confounding factors that have been accounted for by stratification or model adjustment: age, body mass index, diet, waist circumference, Confounders controlled for: "Stress measures" is not in the list (abnormal glucose tolerance, acetaldehyde, acute graft vs. host disease, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, adenoma, age, AIDS, alcohol consumption measurement, alcohol drinking, ...) of allowed values.Stress measures