Gut Microbiota Composition and Fecal Metabolic Phenotype in Patients With Acute Anterior Uveitis

PURPOSE. To investigate gut microbiota composition and fecal metabolic phenotype in patients with acute anterior uveitis. METHODS. Fecal DNA was extracted from 78 fecal samples (38 acute anterior uveitis (AAU) patients and 40 family members of patients or sex-and age-matched healthy controls) and then sequenced by high-throughput 16S rDNA analysis. Gas chromatographic mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolomics was performed on 60 fecal samples (30 AAU patients and 30 healthy controls). RESULTS. A significant difference was observed in beta diversity between AAU patients and healthy controls. Eight genera including Roseburia were reduced in AAU patients, and Veillonella was increased in AAU patients as compared with healthy controls. Significance was however lost after false discovery rate (FDR) correction. The expression of seven fecal metabolites including 6-deoxy-D-glucose 1, linoleic acid, N-Acetyl-beta-D-mannosamine 3, shikimic acid, azelaic acid, isomaltose 1 and palmitoleic acid was increased in AAU patients. Linoleic acid showed a significant correlation with Roseburia and Veillonella according to Spearman correlation analysis. CONCLUSIONS. Our results did not reveal a difference in gut microbiota composition, but did show that the fecal metabolic phenotype in AAU patients was significantly different from healthy controls.