Gut bacteriome and mood disorders in women with PCOS

• Published in: Human reproduction (Oxford) 2024-06, Vol.39 (6), p.1291-1302
• Main Authors: Lee, S, Tejesvi, M V, Hurskainen, E, Aasmets, O, Plaza-Díaz, J, Franks, S, Morin-Papunen, L, Tapanainen, J S, Ruuska, T S, Altmäe, S, Org, E, Salumets, A, Arffman, R K, Piltonen, T T
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Case-Control Studies; Cohort Studies; Feces - microbiology; Female; Finland - epidemiology; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Humans; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Middle Aged; Mood Disorders - epidemiology; Original; Polycystic Ovary Syndrome - complications; Polycystic Ovary Syndrome - microbiology
• ISSN: 0268-1161; 1460-2350; 1460-2350
• DOI: 10.1093/humrep/deae073

How does the gut bacteriome differ based on mood disorders (MDs) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and how can the gut bacteriome contribute to the associations between these two conditions? Women with PCOS who also have MDs exhibited a distinct gut bacteriome with reduced alpha diversity and a significantly lower abundance of Butyricicoccus compared to women with PCOS but without MDs. Women with PCOS have a 4- to 5-fold higher risk of having MDs compared to women without PCOS. The gut bacteriome has been suggested to influence the pathophysiology of both PCOS and MDs. This population-based cohort study was derived from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966), which includes all women born in Northern Finland in 1966. Women with PCOS who donated a stool sample at age 46 years (n = 102) and two BMI-matched controls for each case (n = 205), who also responded properly to the MD criteria scales, were included. A total of 102 women with PCOS and 205 age- and BMI-matched women without PCOS were included. Based on the validated MD criteria, the subjects were categorized into MD or no-MD groups, resulting in the following subgroups: PCOS no-MD (n = 84), PCOS MD (n = 18), control no-MD (n = 180), and control MD (n = 25). Clinical characteristics were assessed at age 31 years and age 46 years, and stool samples were collected from the women at age 46 years, followed by the gut bacteriome analysis using 16 s rRNA sequencing. Alpha diversity was assessed using observed features and Shannon's index, with a focus on genera, and beta diversity was characterized using principal components analysis (PCA) with Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity at the genus level. Associations between the gut bacteriome and PCOS-related clinical features were explored by Spearman's correlation coefficient. A P-value for multiple testing was adjusted with the Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) method. We observed changes in the gut bacteriome associated with MDs, irrespective of whether the women also had PCOS. Similarly, PCOS MD cases showed a lower alpha diversity (Observed feature, PCOS no-MD, median 272; PCOS MD, median 208, FDR = 0.01; Shannon, PCOS no-MD, median 5.95; PCOS MD, median 5.57, FDR = 0.01) but also a lower abundance of Butyricicoccus (log-fold changeAnalysis of Compositions of Microbiomes with Bias Correction (ANCOM-BC)=-0.90, FDRANCOM-BC=0.04) compared to PCOS no-MD cases. In contrast, in the controls, the gut bacteriome did not differ based on M