title: Sex differences and hormonal effects on gut microbiota composition in mice.
abstract: We previously reported quantitation of gut microbiota in a panel of 89 different inbred strains of mice, and we now examine the question of sex differences in microbiota composition. When the total population of 689 mice was examined together, several taxa exhibited significant differences in abundance between sexes but a larger number of differences were observed at the single strain level, suggesting that sex differences can be obscured by host genetics and environmental factors. We also examined a subset of mice on chow and high fat diets and observed sex-by-diet interactions. We further investigated the sex differences using gonadectomized and hormone treated mice from 3 different inbred strains. Principal coordinate analysis with unweighted UniFrac distances revealed very clear effects of gonadectomy and hormone replacement on microbiota composition in all 3 strains. Moreover, bile acid analyses showed gender-specific differences as well as effects of gonodectomy, providing one possible mechanism mediating sex differences in microbiota composition.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Medicine/Division of Cardiology , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|b Estonian Genome Center , University of Tartu , Tartu , Estonia.
authors.forename: Elin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Org
authors.affiliation: a Department of Medicine/Division of Cardiology , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Margarete
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mehrabian
authors.affiliation: a Department of Medicine/Division of Cardiology , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|c Department of Nutritional Sciences , University of Wisconsin , Madison , WI , USA.
authors.forename: Brian W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Parks
authors.affiliation: d Department of Bioanalytical and Discovery Analytical Sciences , Bristol-Myers Squibb , Princeton , NJ , USA.
authors.forename: Petia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shipkova
authors.affiliation: e Department of Cardiovascular Drug Discovery Biology , Bristol-Myers Squibb , Princeton , NJ , USA.
authors.forename: Xiaoqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: f Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine , University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Drake
authors.affiliation: a Department of Medicine/Division of Cardiology , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|g Department of Human Genetics , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|h Department of Microbiology , Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Aldons J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lusis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000378:metabolism; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D006728:Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D006728:Hormones
keywords: genetics; gut microbiota interactions; hormones; inbred strains; sex differences; sex-by-diet interactions