Association between overweight and human gut microbiota composition in shift-work security guards

摘要

Introduction: Shift work is prevalent throughout the world. When so many employees engaged in shift work, it is important to determine its possible health-related effects. Previous studies indicated that the interruption of circadian rhythm influence the composition of the microbial community in the human gut and have been proposed to promote metabolic disturbances that also occur after irregular sleep time that may lead to obesity. Objectives: We examined association between overweight and gut microbiota composition in shift workers. Methods: Two hundred twenty-three security guards, excluded 207 participants because: no fecal samples (n=106), female (n=36), smoking or quit smoking <1 year (n=39), eating betel nuts (n=3), drinking (n=6), shift-work security guard working year <1 (n=6), had medical history (n=10), administration staff (control group) had dyslipidemia (n=l). Total sixteen participants (12 shift-work security guards and 4 administration staffs) enrolled in this study. Fecal microbiome composition was profiled via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. PICRUSt analysis, alpha diversity and Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio were employed to assess the variabilities in richness, diversity, organism-level microbiome phenotypes and molecular functions to find out association between overweight and human gut microbiota. Results: Microbiota composition analysis (16S rRNA gene sequencing) revealed that shiftwork security guards exhibited an increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio than administration staffs. And the content of Firmicutes was gradually increased while the content of Bacteroidetes was decreased with increasing Waist-Hip Ratio in the shift-work group (P<0.05). However, not significant effect between shift-work security guard and administration staffs on beta diversity was found due to the limited sample size. Conclusion: Analysis revealed that shift workers tend to have more anaerobic and less facultatively anaerobic bacteria, indicating a reduced resistance to oxidative stress that lead to overweight.