Abstract
Kidney stones are a common and frequently occurring disease worldwide. Stones can cause urinary tract obstruction, pain, haematuria, and other symptoms. In this study, the relationship between calcium oxalate renal calculi and gut microbiota was considered. The dietary habits of 30 patients with calcium oxalate kidney stones and 30 healthy people were investigated. The 16S rDNA sequences and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in their stool samples were analysed. We identified 5 genera of the gut microbiota as biomarkers for calcium oxalate renal calculi, namely, Bacteroides, Phascolarctobacterium, Faecalibacterium, Akkermansia, and Lactobacillus, with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve value of 0.871 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.785–0.957). Phascolarctobacterium and Faecalibacterium showed a positive relationship with SCFA synthesis to reduce the risk of kidney stones. Meanwhile, according to the analysis, Lactobacillus spp. made the largest contribution (79%) to prevent kidney stones caused by tea consumption, since tea offers the great parts of oxalate in kidney stone formation. Three strains of Lactobacillus spp. were isolated from stools of a healthy person with a high level of tea consumption who did not suffer from kidney stones. All these strains survived in the colon with supplementation of high concentrations of tea and efficiently degraded oxalic acid (Ca. 50%) in an in vitro colonic simulation. Therefore, a suitable adjustment of the gut microbiota or SCFA concentration enhanced the degradation of oxalate from food, which can be applied to prevent the formation of calcium oxalate renal calculi caused by tea.
Key points
• Five genera, including Lactobacillus, were identified as biomarkers for calcium oxalate renal calculi.
• Lactobacillus is a potential gut bacterium associated with preventing kidney stone formation.
• Isolated Lactobacillus strains have the ability to degrade oxalic acid in vitro.
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Data availability
The datasets analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the volunteers for their contributions to this research.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project code 31501452 and 81302781); Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (project code LQ13C090006); Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Plan 2019 (project code 2019KY705); Scientific Research Foundation of Education Department of Zhejiang Province (project code Y201432277); Foundation of Food Science and Engineering, the most important Discipline of Zhejiang Province (project code JYTsp20141082); and Project of International Communication for construction of the first-ranked discipline of Zhejiang Gongshang University (project code 2017SICR106).
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FC, XZ, and XB contributed to the study design and research organization. SYL, KY, and SSX performed the stool collection, LTY, QKX, and YHZ implemented the experiment and analysed the data. XW, JY, WJ, YBS, and SFS contributed to the isolation and in vitro experiments. XZ wrote the article, and all authors read and approved the final manuscript. FC and XB contributed equally to this publication.
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Chen, F., Bao, X., Liu, S. et al. Gut microbiota affect the formation of calcium oxalate renal calculi caused by high daily tea consumption. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 105, 789–802 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-11086-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-11086-w