The composition of the blood microbiota and its relationship to osteoporosis-related clinical parameters

Abstract

Osteoporosis, a systemic bone disease, is characterized by decreased bone mass, deterioration of skeletal structure, and increased bone susceptibility. Age, environment, hormone levels, nutrition, and immunity are all factors that influence bone mass. Currently, intestinal flora has been recently recognized as a key regulator of bone mass. The blood's microbiome role in bone health and in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis remains unknown. In this study, the abundance of various blood's microbial taxa in osteoporosis patients were analyzed. We investigated the associations between prominent bacterial taxa and other clinical indicators (i.e. biochemical, blood cell counts and CT scan). DNA was extracted from the whole blood samples of patients with degenerative bone diseases with or without osteoporosis (i.e. n = 8; ST and n = 12, T group) and healthy controls (n = 4, N group). The 16S rRNA gene sequencing technique was utilized to characterize the blood microbiome taxaThe Shannon–Winner and dilution curves revealed that all the characterized species in the sample and the sequencing data were reliable. The number of bacterial taxa in blood and annotated operational taxonomic units were positively correlated with neutrophils. This support that bacteria exist within or adhere to the neutrophil's membrane. The abundance of Yersinia ruckeri, Rhodanobacter_uncultured bacterium, Enterobacter spp., and Raoultella spp increased in the ST group as compared with the N group. Hence, indicate their potential role in the onset and progression of osteoporosis. These findings provide new insights into the association between blood microbiota and bone health. This study could open a new horizon in exploring the clinical application of blood microbiome to improve bone health.

Keywords

• Osteoporosis
• Blood
• Microbiota
• 16S rRNA sequencing
• Correlation