Paediatric Rheumatology
Microbiome is not linked to clinical disease severity of familial Mediterranean fever in an international cohort of children
S. Ozen1, H.L. Lutz2, V.M. Rivera3, A. Reiff4, E.D. Batu5, E. Anderson6, M. Salas Garcia7, G. Aldrovandi8, T.H. Akbaba9, İ. Pazarbasi10, Y. Bilginer11, A. Balat12, B. Balci-Peynircioglu13, J.A. Gilbert14, F. Dedeoglu15, J.S. Hausmann16
- Department of Paediatric Rheumatology, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey. sezaozen@gmail.com
- Department of Paediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Division of Rheumatology at CHLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Division of Rheumatology at CHLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Paediatric Rheumatology, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.
- Program in Rheumatology, Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Paediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and Division of Rheumatology at CHLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Division of Rheumatology at CHLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Medical Biology, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
- Department of Paediatric Rheumatology, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.
- Division of Nephrology and Rheumatology, Istanbul Aydin University, Istanbul, Turkey.
- Department of Medical Biology, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
- Department of Paediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and Division of Rheumatology at CHLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Program in Rheumatology, Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
- Program in Rheumatology, Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, and Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
CER14202
2021 Vol.39, N°5 ,Suppl.132
PI 0102, PF 0108
Paediatric Rheumatology
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PMID: 34251310 [PubMed]
Received: 06/11/2020
Accepted : 01/02/2021
In Press: 05/07/2021
Published: 06/10/2021
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
The severity of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) may vary in different areas, suggesting a role for environmental factors. We analysed the composition of gut microbiota among children with FMF and healthy controls from Turkey and the USA and determined its effect on disease severity.
METHODS:
Children with FMF with pathogenic MEFV mutations and healthy controls from Turkey and the USA were enrolled. FMF disease activity was evaluated with the Autoinflammatory Disease Activity Index (AIDAI). Gut bacterial diversity was assessed by sequencing 16S rRNA gene libraries.
RESULTS:
We included 36 children from Turkey (28 patients with FMF, 8 healthy controls), and 21 patients and 6 controls from the USA. In the Turkish group, 28.6% of patients had severe disease, while 13.3% of US group patients had severe disease. As expected, we observed substantial differences between the gut microbiota of children from the two geographic regions, with Turkish patients and controls exhibiting higher relative abundances of Bacteriodia, while US patients and controls exhibited higher relative abundances of Clostridia. Alpha- and betadiversity did not differ significantly between FMF patients and controls, and neither was predictive of disease severity within each geographic region. We observed differences between FMF patients and controls in the relative abundance of some bacterial taxa at the amplicon sequence variant (ASV) level, but these differences received mixed statistical support.
CONCLUSIONS:
Among an international cohort of children with FMF, we did not find a strong effect of gut microbiota composition on disease severity. Other environmental or epigenetic factors may be operative.
