Faecal microbiota composition associates with abdominal pain in the general population

Previously, it has been shown that visceral hypersensitivity can be modulated or even induced in animal models, by altering the composition of their gut microbiota with antibiotics or faecal transplantation from IBS donors. 2 3 Hence, while a direct link between gut microbiota composition and visceral pain may need to be conclusively established, this holds great potential for translational exploitation in the treatment of IBS and other FGID. [...]far, the potential association between microbiota and abdominal pain in humans has only been investigated in one study that included 15 individuals. 4 For this purpose, we studied 159 individuals (average age 59.1, 39.6% men) from the Swedish Population-based Colonoscopy (PopCol) cohort, previously described and with faecal microbiota 16S sequencing data and daily recordings of abdominal pain (number of episodes, duration and intensity) collected over the same period (7.41+-7.91 days). When taxa previously associated with abdominal symptoms in animal models and clinical studies (Bacteroides, unclassified Ruminococcaceae, Butyricicoccus, Prevotella, Faecalibacterium, Streptococcus, Bifidobacterium, Blautia, Akkermansia, Lactobacillus, Alistipes and Enterobacter) were compared with a Wilcoxon rank-sum test for their abundance in the pain and control groups, Benjamini-Hochberg corrected significant differences were observed for Prevotella (decreased in cases, p=0.038), Blautia (increased in cases, p=0.045), Streptococcus (increased in cases, p=0.038) and Lactobacillus (increased in cases, p=0.038). Funding: Supported by funds from the Swedish Research Council ("Vetenskapsradet") to MD and the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013, grant number 262055, ESGI) to MD, SS and AF; Iranian ministry of health and medical education to FH; FH is a member of the Research Training Group (RTG) 1743 "Genes, Environment and Inflammation", funded by German Research Foundation (DFG).