Dysbiotic alteration in the fecal microbiota of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common disease associated with high androgen and infertility. Additionally, metabolic disorders, such as insulin resistance (IR), hyperglycemia and obesity, were also detected in patients with PCOS. The gut microbiota has been reported to play an important role in metabolic diseases including obesity, hyperglycemia and fatty liver. Although the gut microbiota has been associated with PCOS, little is known about the gut microbial structure and function in individuals with PCOS from Northeast China. In this study, seventeen PCOS individuals and 17 age-matched healthy individuals were recruited for community structure and function analysis of the gut microbiota. The results showed that PCOS individuals have reduced diversity and richness of the gut microbiota compared with healthy individuals. Beta diversity analysis showed that the community structure of the gut microbiota of individuals with PCOS was significantly separated from healthy individuals. At the phylum level, PCOS individuals have reduced Fimicutes and Bacteroidota and increased Actinobacteriota and Proteobacteria compared with healthy individuals. At the family and genus levels, composition of the gut microbiota between PCOS patients and healthy individuals were also significantly different. In addition, PICRUSt2 showed that individuals with PCOS have different microbial functions in the gut compared with healthy individuals. We finally confirmed that Bifidobacterium was enriched in the fecal samples of PCOS patients, while other 11 genera including Bacteroides, UCG_002, Eubacterium__coprostanoligenes_group_unclassified, Dialister, Firmicutes_unclassified, Ruminococcus, Alistipes, Christensenellaceae_R_7_group, Clostridia_UCG_014_unclassified, Roseburia and Lachnospiraceae_unclassified were depleted compared with healthy individuals. These results indicate that individuals with PCOS have altered community structure and functions of the gut microbiota, which suggests that targeting the gut microbiota might be a potential strategy for PCOS intervention.