Characterization of the urinary microbiota of elderly women and the effects of type 2 diabetes and urinary tract infections on the microbiota

// Fengping Liu 1, 4, * , Zongxin Ling 2, 3, * , Yonghong Xiao 2, 3, * , Qing Yang 3 , Li Zheng 1 , Ping Jiang 1 , Lanjuan Li 2, 3, * and Wei Wang 1, * 1 Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310003, China 2 State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310003, China 3 Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310003, China 4 Nursing Department, Jiangsu Vocational College of Medicine, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224005, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Lanjuan Li, email: ljli@zju.edu.cn Wei Wang, email: wangw2005@zju.edu.cn Keywords: elderly women, lactobacillus, type 2 diabetes mellitus, urinary microbiota, urinary tract infection Received: November 07, 2016      Accepted: September 05, 2017      Published: September 21, 2017 ABSTRACT Evidence shows that urine has complex bacterial profiles with considerable variation between individuals. Aging and age-related conditions can lead to the changes to the composition of urine, which means that the available nutrition for bacteria in the bladder changes with age. We explored the characteristics of the urinary microbiota of elderly women and whether these are associated with age-related conditions such as diabetes and urinary tract infections. An elderly and a non-elderly cohort of women were included. Magnetic beads were used to isolate bacterial genomic DNA, which was analyzed based on the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. There were significant differences between the elderly and non-elderly regarding thirteen genera of bacteria. For example, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus was dramatically reduced in the elderly compared with the non-elderly; it also decreased with age in the elderly cohort and it was not correlated with urine pH. The relative abundance of Peptococcus increased with age in the elderly while the abundance of Bifidobacteria decreased with age. The abundance of Escherichia coli was the same in the two cohorts, and it increased with water intake and was not associated with urinary tract infection events. Higher levels of Lactobacillus (including Lactobacillus iners ) in the elderly were associated with diabetes, and lower levels of Peptoniphilus and Dialister were correlated with asymptomatic bacteriuria. The urinary microbiota of women is affected by ageing, type 2 diabetes mellitus and asymtomatic bacteriuria.