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BMC Medicine
Published in: BMC Medicine 1/2023

Open Access 01-12-2023 | Type 2 Diabetes | Research article

Early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine and gut microbiome disruption across adulthood for type 2 diabetes: three population-based cohort studies

Authors: Wanglong Gou, Huijun Wang, Xin-yi Tang, Yan He, Chang Su, Jiguo Zhang, Ting-yu Sun, Zengliang Jiang, Zelei Miao, Yuanqing Fu, Hui Zhao, Yu-ming Chen, Bing Zhang, Hongwei Zhou, Ju-Sheng Zheng

Published in: BMC Medicine | Issue 1/2023

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Abstract

Background

The early life stage is critical for the gut microbiota establishment and development. We aimed to investigate the lifelong impact of famine exposure during early life on the adult gut microbial ecosystem and examine the association of famine-induced disturbance in gut microbiota with type 2 diabetes.

Methods

We profiled the gut microbial composition among 11,513 adults (18–97 years) from three independent cohorts and examined the association of famine exposure during early life with alterations of adult gut microbial diversity and composition. We performed co-abundance network analyses to identify keystone taxa in the three cohorts and constructed an index with the shared keystone taxa across the three cohorts. Among each cohort, we used linear regression to examine the association of famine exposure during early life with the keystone taxa index and assessed the correlation between the keystone taxa index and type 2 diabetes using logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders. We combined the effect estimates from the three cohorts using random-effects meta-analysis.

Results

Compared with the no-exposed control group (born during 1962–1964), participants who were exposed to the famine during the first 1000 days of life (born in 1959) had consistently lower gut microbial alpha diversity and alterations in the gut microbial community during adulthood across the three cohorts. Compared with the no-exposed control group, participants who were exposed to famine during the first 1000 days of life were associated with consistently lower levels of keystone taxa index in the three cohorts (pooled beta − 0.29, 95% CI − 0.43, − 0.15). Per 1-standard deviation increment in the keystone taxa index was associated with a 13% lower risk of type 2 diabetes (pooled odds ratio 0.87, 95% CI 0.80, 0.93), with consistent results across three individual cohorts.

Conclusions

These findings reveal a potential role of the gut microbiota in the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis, deepening our understanding about the etiology of type 2 diabetes.
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Metadata
Title
Early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine and gut microbiome disruption across adulthood for type 2 diabetes: three population-based cohort studies
Authors
Wanglong Gou
Huijun Wang
Xin-yi Tang
Yan He
Chang Su
Jiguo Zhang
Ting-yu Sun
Zengliang Jiang
Zelei Miao
Yuanqing Fu
Hui Zhao
Yu-ming Chen
Bing Zhang
Hongwei Zhou
Ju-Sheng Zheng
Publication date
01-12-2023
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medicine / Issue 1/2023
Electronic ISSN: 1741-7015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-03123-y

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Correction

Correction: Childhood diabetes mellitus and early-onset kidney diseases later in life: a nationwide population-based matched cohort study