Ageing-associated changes in alpha diversity of faecal microbiota in elderly and centenarians
| Ref. (country of study cohort) | Young adults | Elderly | Group being compared | Microbiota profiling* | Elderly† | Centenarians‡ | ||||
| Nr. | Age range (years) | Nr. | Age range (years) | Diversity | Richness | Diversity | Richness | |||
| Zwielehner49 (Austria) | 17 | 18–31 | 17 institutional | 78–94 | Young adults vs elderly | PCR-DGGE, qPCR, clone libraries | ↓ | n.r. | n.a. | n.a. |
| Biagi42 (Italy) | 20 | 25–40 | 43 | 59–78 | Young adults vs elderly vs centenarians | Phylogenetic microarray and qPCR | ≈ | n.r. | ↓ | n.r. |
| 21 | 99-104 | |||||||||
| Kong58 (China) | 47 | 24–64 | 54 | 65–83 | Nonagenarians and centenarians vs young adults and elderly | Illumina MiSeq | n.r. | n.r. | ↑ | ↑ |
| 67 | 90–102 | |||||||||
| Biagi43 (Italy) | 15 | 22–48 | 15 | 65–75 | Young adults vs elderly vs centenarians | Illumina MiSeq | n.r. | n.r. | ↑ | ↑ |
| 39 | 99–109 | |||||||||
| Wang59 (China) | 16 | 80–99 | Elderly vs centenarians | Illumina MiSeq | n.a. | n.a. | ≈ | ≈ or ↑§ | ||
| 8 | 100–108 | |||||||||
| O’Toole56 (Ireland) | 282 | 64–102 | Age association | Pyrosequencing | ≈ | n.r. | n.r. | n.r. | ||
| Falony52 (Belgium) | 1106 (19–85)¶ | Adults<40 years vs middle-aged 40-59 years vs elderly>60 years | Illumina MiSeq | n.r. | ↑ | n.a. | n.a. | |||
| Odamaki51 (Japan) | 367 (0–104)¶ | Age association | Illumina MiSeq | ↑ | ↑ | ↓ | ↓ | |||
| Jackson53 (UK) | 728 (42–86)¶ | Age association | Illumina MiSeq | ↑ | ↑ | n.a. | n.a. | |||
| Bian54 (China) | 1095 (3–100+)¶ | Age association | Illumina MiSeq | ↑ | n.a. | n.r. | n.r. | |||
| Maffei55 (USA) | 85 (43–79)¶ | Age association | Illumina MiSeq | ≈ | ≈ | n.a. | n.a. | |||
*16S rRNA (gene)-based.
†Microbiota comparison between elderly and young adults.
‡Microbiota comparison between centenarians and elderly/young adults.
§ Depending on which subgroup of elderly were compared.
¶Studies did not report on the definition of young adult, elderly and centenarian.
Nr, number of subjects; centenarian, people aged >100 years; nonagenarian, people aged 90–100 years; PCR-DGGE, PCR denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis; qPCR, quantitative PCR; ↓, significant decrease; ↑, significant increase; ≈, not significantly different; n.a, not available; n.r, not reported.