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. 2021 May;68(3):253-258.
doi: 10.3164/jcbn.20-131. Epub 2020 Oct 31.

Intensive, prolonged exercise seemingly causes gut dysbiosis in female endurance runners

So Morishima  1   2 , Wataru Aoi  3 , Aki Kawamura  4 , Takahiro Kawase  5 , Tomohisa Takagi  6   7 , Yuji Naito  7 , Takamitsu Tsukahara  5 , Ryo Inoue  1   2
Affiliations

Intensive, prolonged exercise seemingly causes gut dysbiosis in female endurance runners

So Morishima et al. J Clin Biochem Nutr. 2021 May.

Abstract

Intensive, prolonged exercise is known to induce gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrhea, with gut dysbiosis suggested as being one of the causatives. In the present study, we wanted to investigate the relationship between intensive exercise and the gut microbiota status. To that end, the microbiota, the moisture content and the bacterial metabolites (e.g., organic acids) of female endurance runners (n = 15) and those of non-athletic but healthy, age-matching female controls (n = 14) were compared. The analysis of the gut microbiota analysis showed that, unlike control subjects, female endurance runners had distinct microbiotas, with some bacteria found in higher abundances likely being involved in gut inflammation. The concentration of succinate, a gut bacterial metabolite regarded as undesirable when accumulated in the lumen, was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the female endurance runners. Faecalibacterium, that was significantly (p<0.05) abundant in female endurance runners, can produce succinate in certain environments and hence may contribute to succinate accumulation, at least partly. The present work suggested that the gut microbiotas of female endurance runners are seemingly dysbiotic when compared with those of control subjects. Further investigation of the mechanism by which intensive, prolonged exercise affects the gut microbiota is recommended.

Keywords: exercise-induced gastrointestinal disorders; female endurance runner; gut microbiota; organic acids; putrefactive metabolites.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Chao1 and Shannon indices of the gut microbiota.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
PCoA (principal coordinate analysis) based on weighted UniFrac (A) and unweighted UniFrac distances (B) generated from the data of the fecal microbiota. The ellipse enclosing each cluster indicate a 95% confidence interval. The PERMANOVA analysis indicated that the gut microbiota compositions of the ER and control groups were different, based on the unweighted UniFrac (p<0.05), but not on the weighted UniFrac distance.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The relative abundance of gut bacteria at the phylum level.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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