Gut microbiome analysis of type 2 diabetic patients from the Chinese minority ethnic groups the Uygurs and Kazaks

Abstract

The gut microbiome may have an important influence on the development of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). To better understand the DM2 pandemic in ethnic minority groups in China, we investigated and compared the composition and richness of the gut microbiota of healthy, normal glucose tolerant (NGT) individuals and DM2 patients from two ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang, northwest China, the Uygurs and Kazaks. The conserved V6 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified by PCR from the isolated DNA. The amplified DNA was sequenced and analyzed. An average of 4047 high quality reads of unique tag sequences were obtained from the 40 Uygurs and Kazaks. The 3 most dominant bacterial families among all participants, both healthy and DM2 patients, were the Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Enterobacteriaceae. Significant differences in intestinal microbiota were found between the NGT individuals and DM2 patients, as well as between the two ethnic groups. Our findings shed new light on the gut microbiome in relation to DM2. The differentiated microbiota data may be used for potential biomarkers for DM2 diagnosis and prevention.