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Time series analysis of microbiome and metabolome at multiple body sites in steady long-term isolation confinement
  1. Qiang Feng1,2,
  2. Xiang Lan1,
  3. Xiaoli Ji1,
  4. Meihui Li1,
  5. Shili Liu1,3,
  6. Jianghui Xiong4,5,
  7. Yanbo Yu6,
  8. Zhipeng Liu5,
  9. Zi Xu4,5,
  10. Li He4,
  11. Ying Chen4,5,
  12. Haisheng Dong6,7,
  13. Pu Chen6,7,
  14. Bin Chen4,7,
  15. Kunlun He8,
  16. Yinghui Li4,5,6
  1. 1 Department of Human Microbiome, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University & Shandong Key Laboratory of Oral Tissue Regeneration & Shandong Engineering Laboratory for Dental Materials and Oral Tissue Regeneration, Jinan, Shandong, China
  2. 2 State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
  3. 3 School of Basic Medical Science, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China
  4. 4 State Key Laboratory of Space Medicine Fundamentals and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China
  5. 5 Lab of Epigenetics and Advanced Health Technology, Space Institute of Southern China, Shenzhen, China
  6. 6 Lab of Functional Food Technology, Space Institute of Southern China, Shenzhen, China
  7. 7 Key Laboratory of Space Nutrition and Food Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China
  8. 8 Beijing Key Laboratory for Precision Medicine of Chronic Heart Failure, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
  1. Correspondence to Professor Qiang Feng, Department of Human Microbiome, JinanSchool and Hospital of Stomatology, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University & Shandong Key Laboratory of Oral Tissue Regeneration & Shandong Engineering Laboratory for Dental Materials and Oral Tissue Regeneration, Jinan, Shandong, China; fengqiang{at}sdu.edu.cn; Professor Yinghui Li, State Key Laboratory of Space Medicine Fundamentals and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China; yinghuidd{at}vip.sina.com

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We read the article by Flemer et al,1 which suggests that the combined analysis of the oral and faecal microbiota may have significant value in the detection of colorectal cancer, with great interest. The oral and intestinal microbiomes are distant anatomic populations that highly abundant, with distinct microbiota and metabolomes, but microbes from the two sites interact with each other.2 External factors, such as residence changes, bacterial infections, irregular diet and circadian rhythm alterations, can lead to a shift in the microbial ecosystem.3 Therefore, understanding the dynamic changes of the microbiome and metabolic profile of faeces and saliva in steady long-term isolation confinement can establish the change rule of human microbiome and the possible disease risk in a long time space travel.

In this study, we examined the human microbiome and metabolome with a time series from multiple body sites to evaluate the stability of the microbial ecosystem and its connection with the human metabolome. The salivary and faecal microbiome and the plasmatic, urinary and faecal metabolome of four simulated astronauts were investigated at a total of 18 time points and were compared with before, during and after 180 days of a test of living in the well-controlled ecological life support system (CELSS) (figure 1 and online supplementary file).

Supplemental material

[gutjnl-2020-320666supp001.pdf]

Figure 1

Overview of the study design and sample collection (saliva (S), faeces (F) and plasma …

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Footnotes

  • QF, XL, XJ, ML and SL are joint first authors.

  • QF, XL, XJ, ML and SL contributed equally.

  • Contributors FQ, LX, JXL, LMH, LSL contributed equally to this paper.FQ and LYH designed and conducted the experiments. XJH, YYB, LZP, XZ, HL, CY, DHS, CP, CB conducted the experiment. LX, LMH analysed the data. JXL, LSL, HKL, FQ and LYH edited the manuscript.

  • Funding This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81630072), The Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University (2015JC010), Programme of Qilu young scholars of Shandong University (sdxz201699000032), the constructional engineering Special Found of Taishan Scholar programme (tsqn20190918). We would like to express special thankfulness to the Development and Reform Commission of Shenzhen Municipality for sponsoring the 4-person-180-day CELSS integrated experiment, and funds from Shenzhen Science & Technology Programme (JCYJ20151029154245758, CKFW2016082915204709). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.