Analysis Of Gut Microbiota And Correlation With Androgen Levels In Patients With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

ObjectivePolycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS)is a reproductive endocrine and metabolic disorder that affects millions of women worldwide.Women with PCOS usually develop symptoms such as menstrual irregularity,hirsutism and infertility.PCOS is now considered as a complex polygenic disease and is largely influenced by the environment.Metabolic diseases associated with PCOS include diabetes,obesity,insulin resistance,etc.These diseases have a role in the development of abnormal metabolism and complications of PCOS.Among them,obesity can significantly increase the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk in patients with PCOS,and stubborn hyperandrogenism brings great difficulties to clinical treatment About 100 trillion microbes are planted in the human intestine.These flora participate in the process of mucosal immune development,growth regulation,nutrient uptake,energy metabolism,and development of multi-system disease.It is reported that,intestinal flora is significantly associated with diseases such as gastrointestinal diseases,cancer,diabetes,metabolism,liver diseases and cardiovascular diseases Previous studies have demonstrated that the intestinal flora of patients with PCOS is characterized by reduced diversity and altered microbial distribution.Our study aims to analyze and compare the gut microbiota of PCOS patients and healthy women by 16S rDNA sequencing,systematically describe the characteristics and changes of gut microbiota of PCOS,and demonstrate the relationships between microbial aboudance and sex hormones levels and other metabolic parameters.MethodsEight obes women with PCOS,ten non-obse PCOS women and nine normal weight healty women were enrolled.Gut microbiota composition was evaluated by amplifying the V3-V4 region of 16S rDNA gene from fecal DNA extracts.Serum metabolome and sex hormones were analysed using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry(LC-MS).ResultObese PCOS women showed significantly lower microbal diversity compared with normal weight healty women.Declin in aboudances of genera(mainly butyrate producers)were obseved in Obese PCOS,including Subdoligranulum,Ruminococcaceae UCG-002,halli-group,Fusicatenibacter,and Lachnospiraceae-ND3007-group.Regression analyses showed that decresed aboudances of several genera were correlative with higher circulating testosterone and impaired glucose metabolism.Compared with Obese PCOS women,non-obese PCOS women exhibited smilar but milder changes in both diversity and composition of gut microbiota.ConclusionOur results confirm the abnormalities in the gut mrobiota of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome,and reveal the correlation between intestinal flora and serum sex hormones,glucose metabolism disorders.Abnormal elevation of serum testosterone may play an important role in altering the structure and composition of the intestinal flora in PCOS women.These results provide theoretical support for understanding the pathological features of PCOS and development of microbial-related treatment strategies.