Distinct gut microbiota of healthy children from two different geographic regions of Thailand

Abstract

In Thailand, food consumption by people from each region is different. This can be an important environmental factor which shapes the gut microbiota further affecting their health. This study aimed to use quantitative PCR (qPCR) to investigate the intestinal microbial community in 60 healthy children (aged 8-11 years) living in specific areas, namely central (CT) and northeastern (NE) Thailand where each region has its own typical food consumption. The children from NE had significantly higher consumption frequency of meat (chicken and beef), a wide variety of carbohydrate sources (noodle, fermented rice and sweet potato) including vegetables and fruit, while in CT, there was a significant preference for rice, breakfast cereal and cow milk. The qPCR analysis resulted in significantly higher abundance of lactobacilli, Clostridium coccoides-Eubacterium rectale, Clostridium leptum, Prevotella and Bacteroides fragilis in children from the NE region. However, no significant difference in the count of Bifidobacterium spp., Enterobacteriaceae and methanogens was observed. Considering the correlation of food sources and microbial groups, the consumption frequency of vegetables showed a moderately positive correlation coefficient of 0.42 and 0.34 to the Lactobacillus group (P = 0.001) and the Prevotella group (P = 0.008), respectively, while a diet of fish and beef showed a moderately negative correlation coefficient of -0.41 (P = 0.001) and -0.33 (P = 0.09) to Bifidobacterium spp., respectively. Our results suggested that high frequency consumption of varieties of carbohydrates, protein sources, fruits and vegetables by the NE children promoted a high abundance of bacterial species in the phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes.

Comprehensive analysis of the fecal microbiota of healthy Japanese adults reveals a new bacterial lineage associated with a phenotype characterized by a high frequency of bowel movements and a lean body type

“…Host parameters such as age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) are reported to be linked to the composition of the gut microbiota [7–11], and differences in dietary habits have been shown to affect the bacterial diversity of the human gut microbiota. Together, these results partially explain why differences in the composition of the gut microbiota are observed in persons residing in different geographical regions [6, 12–14]. …”

“…Furthermore, differences were found for the abundances of only six bacterial families between only two of the seven regions (Table 2 and Additional file 1: Table S5), suggesting that area of residence does not strongly affect the composition of the fecal microbiota in the healthy adults living in Japan. Therefore, the dietary habits and daily routines that are common in the various regions of Japan today (Additional file 1: Table S9) are not sufficiently distinct as to lead to clear microbial diversity in the gut, which is in contrast to the current situation in Thailand [14] and Mongolia [10]. …”

High relative abundance of firmicutes and increased TNF-α levels correlate with obesity in children

“…31 Diet is considered a trigger of intestinal microbiota diversity by altering the gut microenvironment. [32][33][34][35] Recently, we reported that gut microbiota, particularly the phylum Firmicutes and a high fat diet increases the chance of developing obesity. 11 This observation is in agreement with our data (table II), where the medium and high tertiles of Firmicutes RA were statistically associated with obesity, suggesting that the amount of Firmicutes RA is important to get a state of obesity.…”

Lifestyle and geographic insights into the distinct gut microbiota in elderly women from two different geographic locations

“…Moreover, diet patterns differ geographically in the same country [21]. Also, a number of dissimilarities in dietary patterns were reported between island and inland areas of South Korea [22].…”