Page 6 - JCTR-10-3

Journal of Clinical and Translational Research 2024; 10(3): 180-190

Journal of Clinical and Translational Research

Journal homepage: http://www.jctres.com/en/home

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Alterations of biliary and gut microbiota in relation to gallstone

formation

Min Xie , Xueling Zhang , Yue Wu , Jiahuan Sun , Qinsheng Zhang *, Wei Yu *, Peilin Cui *
1
1
1
2
3
1†
1†
1 Department of Internal Medicine, International Medical Services, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China,
2 Department of Hepatobiliary and Spleen Stomach, Henan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China,
3 Department of General Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
† These authors contributed equally to this work.
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article history: Background: The gut and biliary microbiota are important components of the complex
Received: 04 October 2023 microecology system in the human body. However, it is often difficult to obtain bile in clinical
Accepted: 22 January 2024 practice to manage gallstone diseases, warranting further microbiota research to evaluate the
Published Online: May 28, 2024 relationship between biliary microbiota and gallstone formation.
Aims: We aimed to characterize the diversity and alterations of biliary and gut microbiota in
Keywords: patients with gallstones and analyze their possible correlations to gallstone formation.
Gallstones Methods: We collected gallstones, bile, gallbladder mucosa, and feces from 21 patients with
Gut microbiota gallstone disease during operation and fecal samples from 20 healthy subjects without gallstones.
Biliary microbiota We performed high-throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene in the
Diversity gallstone and control groups and analyzed the final optimization sequence.
Microflora structure Results: We identified a total of 23,427 operational taxonomic units. Achromobacter (P = 0.010),
Faecalibacterium (P = 0.042), and Lachnospira (P = 0.011) were significantly reduced, while
*Corresponding authors: Enterococcus (P = 0.001) was increased in the gallstone group. The diversity and composition
Peilin Cui between the biliary and gut microbiota in gallstone patients had statistical differences. The
Department of Internal Medicine, diversity of gut microbiota was significantly higher than that of biliary microbiota (P < 0.05). In
International Medical Services, Beijing addition, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) >4 indicated that the characteristic flora was specific
Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical to five samples. Prevotella and Proteobacteria had LDA values >4 in the feces and both bile and
University, Beijing, China. gallbladder mucosa, respectively, of patients with gallstones.
Email: cuipeilin@bjtth.org Conclusion: The biliary and gut microbiota of patients with gallstones displayed bacterial
heterogeneity. Prevotella and Proteobacteria may serve as biomarkers for dysbacteriosis in
Wei Yu patients with gallstones, suggesting that alterations of biliary and gut microbiota are involved in
Department of General Surgery, Beijing the formation of gallstones. This study highlights the potential application of fecal microbiota
Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical transplantation technology in the treatment of gallstone diseases.
University, Beijing, China. Relevance for Patients: Microecology of the digestive tract is closely related to the formation of
Email: yuweimade@sina.com gallstones, providing new ideas for the prevention and treatment of patients with gallstones.
Qinsheng Zhang
Department of Hepatobiliary and Spleen
Stomach, Henan Provincial Hospital 1. Introduction
of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Gallstones are crystal deposits in the biliary system, including the gallbladder and bile
Zhengzhou, Henan, China. duct. Gallstones commonly affect 10 – 20% of the global adult population [1], and the
Email: 80792825@qq.com
resultant cost of gallbladder disease constitutes a major health burden [2]. With changes
in dietary patterns and the aging population, the incidence of gallstones is increasing.
© 2024 Author(s). This is an Open-
Access article distributed under the terms Approximately 5% of patients with gallstones develop acute cholecystitis, suppurative
of the Creative Commons Attribution- cholangitis, severe acute pancreatitis, biliary fistula, and other serious complications [3,4].
Noncommercial License, permitting all In addition, gallstones have been associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases,
non-commercial use, distribution, and such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease [5,6]. There is compelling evidence
reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36922/jctr.23.00118