Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Adolescent/young adult Hodgkin lymphoma (AYAHL) survivors report fewer exposures to infections during childhood compared with controls, and they have functional lymphocyte aberrations. The gut microbiota plays a central role in immunity.Methods
We investigated whether fecal microbial diversity differed between 13 AYAHL survivors and their unaffected co-twin controls. Pyrosequencing of fecal bacterial 16S rRNA amplicons yielded 252?943 edited reads that were assigned to species-level operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and standardised for sequencing depth by random sampling. Microbial diversity was compared within vs between twin pairs and by case-control status.Results
The number of unique OTUs was more similar within twin pairs compared with randomly paired participants (P=0.0004). The AYAHL cases had fewer unique OTUs compared with their co-twin controls (338 vs 369, P=0.015); this difference was not significant (169 vs 183, P=0.10) when restricted to abundant OTUs.Conclusion
In this small study, AYAHL survivors appear to have a deficit of rare gut microbes. Further work is needed to determine if reduced microbial diversity is a consequence of the disease, its treatment, or a particularly hygienic environment.
SUBMITTER: Cozen W
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3619077 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Cozen W W Yu G G Gail M H MH Ridaura V K VK Nathwani B N BN Hwang A E AE Hamilton A S AS Mack T M TM Gordon J I JI Goedert J J JJ
British journal of cancer 20130226 5
<h4>Background</h4>Adolescent/young adult Hodgkin lymphoma (AYAHL) survivors report fewer exposures to infections during childhood compared with controls, and they have functional lymphocyte aberrations. The gut microbiota plays a central role in immunity.<h4>Methods</h4>We investigated whether fecal microbial diversity differed between 13 AYAHL survivors and their unaffected co-twin controls. Pyrosequencing of fecal bacterial 16S rRNA amplicons yielded 252 943 edited reads that were assigned to ...[more]