OSA is a common sleep-related breathing disorder; previous studies have found that it is associated with increased risk for insulin resistance, and incident blood hypertension. The team of researchers used respiratory polygraphy data from 3,570 individuals aged 50–64 from the Swedish CardioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) alongside deep shotgun metagenomics to identify OSA-associated gut microbiota features.
The analysis revealed that OSA-related hypoxia parameters (lack of oxygen at tissue level) were associated with 128 bacterial species, including Blautia obeum and Collinsela aerofaciens. The latter was also associated with increased systolic blood pressure. Additionally, nine gut microbiota metabolic pathways including propionate production from lactate were associated with the cumulative time in hypoxia.
These findings can guide future research on the gut microbiota-mediated health effects of OSA with the potential of identifying host-microbiome mechanisms for OSA-related morbidities.
Congratulations to all the authors, including our colleagues Jacob Bak Holm and H. Bjørn Nielsen for this important publication. A special thank you to Tove Fall, Marju Orho-Melander, and Johan Arnlov for the many years of collaboration on the SCAPIS cohort – we are excited to continue to be involved!
At Clinical Microbiomics, we are proud to support researchers in understanding how the microbiome impacts health and disease.