Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb 26:14:647-655.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S159322. eCollection 2018.

Sex differences in gut microbiota in patients with major depressive disorder

Jian-Jun Chen  1   2   3   4 , Peng Zheng  2   3 , Yi-Yun Liu  2   3 , Xiao-Gang Zhong  2   3 , Hai-Yang Wang  2   3 , Yu-Jie Guo  2   3 , Peng Xie  2   3
Affiliations

Sex differences in gut microbiota in patients with major depressive disorder

Jian-Jun Chen et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

Abstract

Objective: Our previous studies found that disturbances in gut microbiota might have a causative role in the onset of major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were sex differences in gut microbiota in patients with MDD.

Patients and methods: First-episode drug-naïve MDD patients and healthy controls were included. 16S rRNA gene sequences extracted from the fecal samples of the included subjects were analyzed. Principal-coordinate analysis and partial least squares-discriminant analysis were used to assess whether there were sex-specific gut microbiota. A random forest algorithm was used to identify the differential operational taxonomic units. Linear discriminant-analysis effect size was further used to identify the dominant sex-specific phylotypes responsible for the differences between MDD patients and healthy controls.

Results: In total, 57 and 74 differential operational taxonomic units responsible for separating female and male MDD patients from their healthy counterparts were identified. Compared with their healthy counterparts, increased Actinobacteria and decreased Bacteroidetes levels were found in female and male MDD patients, respectively. The most differentially abundant bacterial taxa in female and male MDD patients belonged to phyla Actinobacteria and Bacteroidia, respectively. Meanwhile, female and male MDD patients had different dominant phylotypes.

Conclusion: These results demonstrated that there were sex differences in gut microbiota in patients with MDD. The suitability of Actinobacteria and Bacteroidia as the sex-specific biomarkers for diagnosing MDD should be further explored.

Keywords: MDD; biomarker; gut microbiota; major depressive disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Obvious differences in gut microbial composition between female MDD patients and HCs. Notes: (A) Three-dimensional principal-coordinate analysis; (B) partial least squares-discriminant analysis. Abbreviations: MDD, major depressive disorder; HCs, healthy controls.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Obvious differences in gut microbial composition between male MDD patients and HCs. Notes: (A) Three-dimensional principal-coordinate analysis; (B) partial least squares-discriminant analysis. Abbreviations: MDD, major depressive disorder; HCs, healthy controls.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Heat map of differential operational taxonomic unit abundance between female MDD patients and HCs. Notes: Assignment of each operational taxonomic unit provided at right. Green and red indicate increase and decrease, respectively. Abbreviations: MDD, major depressive disorder; HCs, healthy controls.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Heat map of differential operational taxonomic unit abundance between male MDD patients and HCs. Notes: Assignment of each operational taxonomic unit provided at right. Green and red indicate increase and decrease, respectively. Abbreviations: MDD, major depressive disorder; HCs, healthy controls.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Taxonomic differences in gut microbiota in female subjects. Notes: (A) Bacterial clades (25) with statistically significant and biologically consistent differences in female MDD patients and HCs (LDA score >2); (B) MDD-enriched taxa indicated by positive LDA scores (green), and HC-enriched taxa indicated by negative scores (red). Abbreviations: MDD, major depressive disorder; HCs, healthy controls; LDA, linear discriminant analysis.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Taxonomic differences in gut microbiota in male subjects. Notes: (A) Twelve bacterial clades with statistically significant and biologically consistent differences in male MDD patients and HCs (LDA score >2); (B) MDD-enriched taxa indicated by positive LDA scores (green), and HC-enriched taxa indicated by negative scores (red). Abbreviations: MDD, major depressive disorder; HCs, healthy controls; LDA, linear discriminant analysis.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Associations among demographic data (age, BMI, and HDRS) and gut microbiota. Notes: (A) Female and (B) male MDD patients. Red lines indicate positive relationships, green lines negative relationship, and circles: red, demographic data; green, Asaccharobacter; blue, Clostridium XIVa; orange, Erysipelotrichaceae incertae sedis; dark orchid, Faecalibacterium; yellow, Lachnospiraceae incertae sedis; deep sky blue, Streptococcus; crimson, Collinsella; light green, Dorea; pink, Veillonella; olive, others. Abbreviations: BMI, body-mass index; HDRS, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; MDD, major depressive disorder.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Chen JJ, Zhou CJ, Zheng P, et al. Differential urinary metabolites related with the severity of major depressive disorder. Behav Brain Res. 2017;332:280–287. - PubMed
    1. Chen JJ, Zhao LB, Liu YY, Fan SH, Xie P. Comparative efficacy and acceptability of electroconvulsive therapy versus repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for major depression: a systematic review and multiple-treatments meta-analysis. Behav Brain Res. 2017;320:30–36. - PubMed
    1. Belmaker RH, Agam G. Major depressive disorder. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:55–68. - PubMed
    1. Chen JJ, Zhou CJ, Liu Z, et al. Divergent urinary metabolic phenotypes between major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder identified by a combined GC-MS and NMR spectroscopic metabonomic approach. J Proteome Res. 2015;14(8):3382–3389. - PubMed
    1. Guilloux JP, Douillard-Guilloux G, Kota R, et al. Molecular evidence for BDNF- and GABA-related dysfunctions in the amygdala of female subjects with major depression. Mol Psychiatry. 2012;17:1130–1142. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources