Intestinal microbiome and acute transplanted kidney rejection – results of a single-center, case-control study
Abstract
Kidney transplantation (KTx) is the preferred form of renal replacement therapy. Acute rejection of the transplanted kidney (AR) may impair long-term outcomes. The gut microbiota influences immune system activity; however, its relationship with AR remains underexplored. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the gut microbiome and risk of AR shortly after KTx. In this single-center, retrospective case-control study, 10 patients with consecutive biopsy-proven AR shortly after KTx (median age 43 (38, 48) years) were matched by sex and age with 20 patients without AR (median age 42 (37, 48) years) during a one-year follow-up after KTx. Stool samples were collected 4–7 days after KTx for microbiome analysis using Illumina shallow shotgun sequencing. Bioinformatics analysis included taxonomic and functional profiling, with predictive modeling performed using a random forest model (RF). Model performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the area under the curve (AUC). No significant differences in gut microbiota diversity were observed between the groups. The differential abundance analysis did not identify any taxonomic features that remained significant after adjusting for possible covariates. The predictive RF models varied in performance, with functional KEGG pathway profiles showing the highest predictive value (AUC = 0.73). Key metabolic pathways implicated in such profiles included lipid metabolism, glycan biosynthesis…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a case-control. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause. Reported size: 20 participants or records.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Bile Acid 7α-Dehydroxylating Gut Bacteria Secrete Antibiotics that Inhibit Clostridium difficile: Role of Secondary Bile Acids
- Ketogenic diet alleviates colitis by reduction of colonic group 3 innate lymphoid cells through altering gut microbiome
- Altered gut microbiome composition and function are associated with gut barrier dysfunction in healthy relatives of patients with Crohn's disease
- Diet, obesity, and the gut microbiome as determinants modulating metabolic outcomes in a non-human primate model
- Immune Impairment Associated with Vitamin A Deficiency: Insights from Clinical Studies and Animal Model Research
- Glyphosate-based herbicides influence antioxidants, reproductive hormones and gut microbiome but not reproduction: A long-term experiment in an avian model
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.