ABSTRACT
We aimed to evaluate colonisation patterns of Akkermansia muciniphila in a Greek adult population and to investigate model-adjusted associations of A. muciniphila with host adiposity and cardiometabolic markers. Participants (n=125) underwent anthropometric, dietary, physical activity and lifestyle evaluation. Blood sampling for determination of blood lipid indices, glucose metabolism, adiponectin, lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), inflammation and oxidative stress parameters was also performed. Stool A. muciniphila presence and levels were determined by quantitative PCR and subjects were grouped based on bimodal distribution of levels (Low vs High). A. muciniphila was detected in 88.6% of participants. Overweight/obese (OW/OB) subjects were more prone in low bimodal levels of A. muciniphila compared to normal-weight (NW) individuals (58.75 vs 27.59%, P=0.004), with a 4-time greater likelihood after multi-adjusted logistic regression analysis (P=0.016). Levels of A. muciniphila were negatively associated with total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TC/HDL-C) ratio (log10:-0.009±0.004, P=0.033), whereas detection of this bacterium was negatively associated with both TC/HDL-C ratio (log10: -0.049±0.023, P=0.036) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol/HDL-C ratio (-0.407±0.176, P=0.023). Furthermore, low bimodal levels of A. muciniphila were positively associated with fasting blood glucose (log10: 0.018±0.009, P=0.037). In terms of inflammation markers, levels of A. muciniphila were positively associated with soluble cluster of differentiation-14 (sCD14) (log10: 0.012±0.004, P=0.003) and faecal detection of this bacterium had a positive association with anti-inflammatory interleukin 10 levels (log10: 0.325±0.131, P=0.015). In addition, A. muciniphila levels were positively associated with total adiponectin (log10: 0.046±0.015, P=0.002), whereas low bimodal levels of A. muciniphila had an inverse relationship with this blood marker (log10: -0.131±0.053, P=0.016). In conclusion, we confirmed the previously reported association of A. muciniphila with metabolic health for the first time in a Greek urban population; furthermore, we shed some light to novel atherosclerotic risk markers with rather unexplored connections with A. muciniphila colonisation patterns in human subjects.