Gut health in multiple joint osteoarthritis: a multimodal investigation in humans and pet dogs
The Gut health in multiple joint osteoarthritis (MJOA) study leverages data from parallel community-based cohorts in humans and in pet dogs to elucidate the role of altered microbiota in MJOA. One hundred Johnston County Health Study human participants were 35 to 70 years of age at enrollment (2022-2023), self-identified as Hispanic, White, or Black, and lived in Johnston County, North Carolina. Demographic, clinical information, multiple joint radiographs, and stool samples for microbiome profiling by 16S rRNA gene sequencing were obtained from all participants.  Similar data were collected from an independent group of pet dogs (N=115) from the local community, at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Veterinary Medicine. The central hypothesis of the study is that intestinal permeability, with or without dysbiosis, is a major driver in the development and worsening of MJOA. Overall design: population based Dog participants. Eligibility: at least 5 years old, weight >= 5kg. Exclusion criteria: any contraindication for undergoing sedation, neurological problems that significantly affect mobility, or any history of aggressive behavior. Isolation of total DNA from stool samples and analysis by Illumina NextSeq 16S rRNA bacterial amplicon sequencing were performed in the UNC Microbiome Core Facility following standard Illumina sequencing protocols. Data sequencing output was converted to fastq format and demultiplexed using Illumina Bcl2Fastq 2.20.0 . The resulting paired-end reads were processed with the QIIME ver.2.2020.6  wrapper for DADA2 including merging paired ends, quality filtering, error correction, and chimera detection. Amplicon sequencing units from DADA2 were assigned taxonomic identifiers using the Silva database.