Associations of the skin, oral and gut microbiome with aging, frailty and infection risk reservoirs in older adults.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2022
Publication Title
Nat Aging
Keywords
JGM
JAX Source
Nat Aging. 2022;2(10):941-55
Volume
2
Issue
10
First Page
941
Last Page
955
ISSN
2662-8465
PMID
36398033
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00287-9
Grant
Funding for this project were provided by internal UConn support via the UConn Research Excellence Program and the UConn Microbiome Research Seed Grant. Investigator salaries were additionally supported by the National Institute on Aging (R56 AG060746 and P30 AG067988) and Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at UConn. JO is additionally supported by the National Institutes of Health (DP2 GM126893-01, K22 AI119231-01, 1U54NS105539, 1 U19 AI142733 and 1 R21 AR075174), the National Science Foundation (1853071), the American Cancer Society, the Leo Foundation and the Mackenzie Foundation.
Abstract
Older adults represent a vulnerable population with elevated risk for numerous morbidities. To explore the association of the microbiome with aging and age-related susceptibilities including frailty and infectious disease risk, we conducted a longitudinal study of the skin, oral, and gut microbiota in 47 community- or skilled nursing facility-dwelling older adults vs. younger adults. We found that microbiome changes were not associated with chronological age so much as frailty: we identified prominent changes in microbiome features associated with susceptibility to pathogen colonization and disease risk, including diversity, stability, heterogeneity, and biogeographic determinism, which were moreover associated with a loss of
Recommended Citation
Larson P,
Zhou W,
Santiago A,
Driscoll S,
Fleming E,
Voigt A,
Chun O,
Grady J,
Kuchel G,
Robison J,
Oh J.
Associations of the skin, oral and gut microbiome with aging, frailty and infection risk reservoirs in older adults. Nat Aging. 2022;2(10):941-55