Faecal Microbiota Composition Varies between Patients with Breast Cancer and Healthy Women: A Comparative Case-Control Study.

The intestinal microbiota plays an essential role in many diseases, such as obesity, irritable bowel disease (IBD), and cancer. This study aimed to characterize the faecal microbiota from early-stage breast cancer (BC) patients and healthy controls. Faeces from newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, mainly for an invasive carcinoma of no specific type (HR+ and HER2-), before any therapeutic treatment and healthy controls were collected for metabarcoding analyses. We show that the Shannon index, used as an index of diversity, was statistically lower in the BC group compared to that of controls. This work highlights a reduction of microbial diversity, a relative enrichment in Firmicutes, as well as a depletion in Bacteroidetes in patients diagnosed with early BC compared to those of healthy women. A tendency towards a decreased relative abundance of Odoribacter sp., Butyricimonas sp., and Coprococcus sp. was observed. This preliminary study suggests that breast cancer patients may differ from healthy subjects in their intestinal bacterial composition.

Omega 3 fatty acids promote macrophage reverse cholesterol transport in hamster fed high fat diet.

The aim of this study was to investigate macrophage reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) in hamster, a CETP-expressing species, fed omega 3 fatty acids (ω3PUFA) supplemented high fat diet (HFD). Three groups of hamsters (n = 6/group) were studied for 20 weeks: 1) control diet: Control, 2) HFD group: HF and 3) HFD group supplemented with ω3PUFA (EPA and DHA): HFω3. In vivo macrophage-to-feces RCT was assessed after an intraperitoneal injection of (3)H-cholesterol-labelled hamster primary macrophages. Compared to Control, HF presented significant (p<0.05) increase in body weight, plasma TG (p<0.01) and cholesterol (p<0.001) with an increase in VLDL TG and in VLDL and LDL cholesterol (p<0.001). Compared to HF, HFω3 presented significant decrease in body weight. HFω3 showed less plasma TG (p<0.001) and cholesterol (p<0.001) related to a decrease in VLDL TG and HDL cholesterol respectively and higher LCAT activity (p<0.05) compared to HF. HFω3 showed a higher fecal bile acid excretion (p<0.05) compared to Control and HF groups and higher fecal cholesterol excretion (p<0.05) compared to HF. This increase was related to higher gene expression of ABCG5, ABCA1 and SR-B1 in HFω3 compared to Control and HF groups (<0.05) and in ABCG1 and CYP7A1 compared to HF group (p<0.05). A higher plasma efflux capacity was also measured in HFω3 using (3)H- cholesterol labeled Fu5AH cells. In conclusion, EPA and DHA supplementation improved macrophage to feces reverse cholesterol transport in hamster fed HFD. This change was related to the higher cholesterol and fecal bile acids excretion and to the activation of major genes involved in RCT.

Low rate of production of apolipoproteins B100 and AI in 2 patients with Anderson disease (chylomicron retention disease).

OBJECTIVE: Anderson disease is a rare inherited lipid malabsorption syndrome associated with hypocholesterolemia and linked to SAR1B mutations. The aim of this article was to analyze the mechanisms responsible for the low plasma apolipoprotein Apo-B100 and Apo-AI in 2 patients with Anderson disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: A primed constant infusion of (13)C-leucine was administered for 14 hours to determine the kinetics of lipoproteins. In the 2 patients, total cholesterol (77 and 85 mg/dL versus 155±32 mg/dL), triglycerides (36 and 59 versus 82±24 mg/dL), Apo-B100 (48 and 43 versus 71±5 mg/dL), and Apo-AI (47 and 62 versus 130±7 mg/dL) were lower compared with 6 healthy individuals. Very-low-density lipoprotein-B100 production rate of the patients was lower (4.08 and 5.52 mg/kg/day versus 12.96±2.88 mg/kg/day) as was the fractional catabolic rate (5.04 and 4.32 day(-1) versus 12.24±3.84 day(-1)). No difference was observed in intermediate-density lipoprotein-B100 and LDL-B100 kinetic data. The production rate of high-density lipoprotein Apo-AI was lower in the patients (7.92 and 8.64 versus 11.96±1.92 mg/kg/day) and the fractional catabolic rate was higher (0.38 and 0.29 versus 0.22±0.01 day(-1)). CONCLUSIONS: The low plasma Apo-B100 and Apo-AI concentrations in the patients with Anderson disease were mainly related to low rates of production.