Structure analysis of the gut microbiota in chronic functional constipation patients

Objective To investigate the differences of gut microbiota between patients with chronic functional constipation (CFC) and health controls (HC). Methods 16S rRNA highthroughout pyrosequencing on V4 region was employed to examine the difference of gut microbiota profiles between 10 CFC patients and 10 HCs. The obtained data were analyzed using bioinformatics. Results The richness analysis suggested that HCs have richer gut microbiota than CFC patients (all P<0.05), while no significant difference was observed in the diversity analysis.There was a significant structure difference of gut microbiota between CFC patients and HCs both at the phylum and genus levels (all P<0.05). At the phylum level, Actinobacteria in CFC patients is richer than that in HCs, but Proteobacteria is opposite (all P<0.05). At the genus level, 20 gut microbiota were found to have a changed relative abundance between CFC patients and HCs, in which Coprobacillus, Hungatella, Holdemanella, Anaerostipes, Bacteroidales_S24-7_group_norank, Bacteroides, Blautia, [Eubacterium]_ruminantium_group, Collinsella, Dorea, Erysipelotrichaceae_UCG-003, Parabacteroides and Ruminococcaceae_uncultured were increased in CFC patients while Megasphaera, Paraprevotella, Prevotella_2, Prevotella_9, Enterococcus, Catenibacterium and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 were increased in HCs. Conclusion There was a significant structure difference of gut microbiota between CFC patients and HCs. Therefore, targeting the gut microbiota dysbiosis may be a promising therapeutic strategy for CFC patients. Key words: Constipation; Intestinal flora dysregulation; Bacteria abundance; 16S rRNA, richness