Association between gut microbiota and symptomatic hand osteoarthritis: data from the Xiangya Osteoarthritis Study.

Objectives Systemic inflammatory factors have been implicated in symptomatic hand osteoarthritis (SHOA). Gut microbiome dysbiosis promotes systematic inflammation. The aim of the study was to examine the association between gut microbiome with the presence of SHOA in a population-based study. Methods Study participants were derived from the Xiangya Osteoarthritis (XO) Study, a community-based observational study. SHOA was defined as the presence of both symptoms and radiographic osteoarthritis in the same hand. The gut microbiome was analyzed using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing from stool samples. We examined the relation of α diversity, β diversity, relative abundance of gut microbiome and potential bacterial functional pathways based on predictive metagenome profiling to SHOA. Results A total of 1,388 participants (women: 57.4%; mean age: 61.3 years; SHOA prevalence: 5.2%) were included. β diversity, but not α diversity, was significantly associated with SHOA (P=0.003). Higher relative abundance of genus Bilophila and Desulfovibrio as well as lower relative abundance of genus Roseburia were associated with SHOA. Most Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways altered in participants with SHOA belonged to amino acid, carbohydrate and lipid metabolic pathways. Conclusions This large population-based study provides the first evidence that alteration of gut microbiome composition was observed among participants with SHOA, and low relative abundance of Roseburia but high relative abundance of Bilophila and Desulfovibrio at genus level were associated with prevalent SHOA. Our findings may help understand the role of microbiome in the development of SHOA and contribute to potential translational opportunities.