Association between the relative abundance of phyla actinobacteria, vitamin C consumption, and DNA methylation of genes linked to immune response pathways

Introduction

There is an emerging body of evidence that vitamin C consumption can modulate microbiota abundance and can also impact DNA methylation in the host, and this could be a link between diet, microbiota, and immune response. The objective of this study was to evaluate common CpG sites associated with both vitamin C and microbiota phyla abundance.

Methods

Six healthy women participated in this cohort study. They were divided into two groups, according to the amount of vitamin C they ingested. Ingestion was evaluated using the 24-h recall method. The Illumina 450 k BeadChip was used to evaluate DNA methylation. Singular value decomposition analyses were used to evaluate the principal components of this dataset. Associations were evaluated using the differentially methylated position function from the Champ package for R Studio.

Results and discussion

The group with higher vitamin C (HVC) ingestion also had a higher relative abundance of Actinobacteria. There was a positive correlation between those variables (r = 0.84, p = 0.01). The HVC group also had higher granulocytes, and regarding DNA methylation, there were 207 CpG sites commonly related to vitamin C ingestion and the relative abundance of Actinobacteria. From these sites, there were 13 sites hypomethylated and 103 hypermethylated. The hypomethylated targets involved the respective processes: immune function, glucose homeostasis, and general cellular metabolism. The hypermethylated sites were also enriched in immune function-related processes, and interestingly, more immune responses against pathogens were detected. These findings contribute to understanding the interaction between nutrients, microbiota, DNA methylation, and the immune response.

14-weeks combined exercise epigenetically modulated 118 genes of menopausal women with prediabetes

BACKGROUND

Pre-diabetes precedes Diabetes Mellitus (DM) disease and is a critical period for hyperglycemia treatment, especially for menopausal women, considering all metabolic alterations due to hormonal changes. Recently, the literature has demonstrated the role of physical exercise in epigenetic reprogramming to modulate the gene expression patterns of metabolic conditions, such as hyperglycemia, and prevent DM development. In the present study, we hypothesized that physical exercise training could modify the epigenetic patterns of women with poor glycemic control.

METHODS

48 post-menopause women aged 60.3 ± 4.5 years were divided according to their fasting blood glucose levels into two groups: Prediabetes Group, PG (n=24), and Normal Glucose Group, NGG (n=24). All participants performed 14 weeks of physical exercise three times a week. The Infinium Methylation EPIC BeadChip measured the participants' Different Methylated Regions (DMRs).

RESULTS

Before the intervention, the PG group had 12 DMRs compared to NGG. After the intervention, five DMRs remained different. Interestingly, when comparing the PG group before and after training, 118 DMRs were found. The enrichment analysis revealed that the genes were related to different biological functions such as energy metabolism, cell differentiation, and tumor suppression.

CONCLUSION

Physical exercise is a relevant alternative in treating hyperglycemia and preventing DM in post-menopause women with poor glycemic control.