Neonatal exposure to androgens dynamically alters gut microbiota architecture.

Gonadal steroids strongly contribute to the metabolic programming that shapes the susceptibility to the manifestation of diseases later in life, and the effect is often sexually dimorphic. Microbiome signatures, together with metabolic traits and sex steroid levels, were analyzed at adulthood in neonatally androgenized female rats, and compared with those of control male and female rats. Exposure of female rats to high doses of androgens on early postnatal life resulted in persistent alterations of the sex steroid profile later on life, namely lower progesterone and higher estradiol and estrone levels, with no effect on endogenous androgens. Neonatally androgenized females were heavier (10% at early adulthood and 26% at adulthood) than controls and had impaired glucose homeostasis observed by higher AUC of glucose in GTT and ITT when subjected to obesogenic manipulations. Androgenized female displayed overt alterations in gut microbiota, indicated especially by higher Bacteroidetes and lower Firmicutes abundance at early adulthood, which disappeared when animals were concurrently overfed at adulthood. Notably, these changes in gut microbiota were related with the intestinal expression of several miRNAs, such as miR-27a-3p, miR-29a-5p, and miR-100-3p. Our results suggest that nutritional and hormonal disruption at early developmental periods not only alters the metabolic programming of the individual later in life but also perturbs the architecture of gut microbiota, which may interact with the host by a cross-talk mediated by intestinal miRNAs; phenomena that may contribute to amplify the metabolic derangement caused by obesity, as seen in neonatally androgenized female rats.

Sex Differences in the Gut Microbiota as Potential Determinants of Gender Predisposition to Disease.

SCOPE: Dysbiosis of gut microbiota is involved in metabolic syndrome (MetS) development, which has a different incidence between men (M) and women (W). The differences in gut microbiota in MetS patients are explored according to gender, and whether consuming two healthy diets, Mediterranean (MED) and low-fat (LF), may, over time, differentially shape the gut microbiota dysbiosis according to gender is evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the women from the CORDIOPREV study whose feces samples were available and a similar number of men, matched by the main metabolic variables (N = 246, 123 women and 123 men), and categorized according to the presence or not of MetS are included. Gut microbiota is analyzed at baseline and after 3 years of dietary intervention. RESULTS: Higher abundance of Collinsella, Alistipes, Anaerotruncus, and Phascolarctobacterium genera is observed in MetS-W than in MetS-M, whereas the abundance of Faecalibacterium and Prevotella genera is higher in MetS-M than in MetS-W. Moreover, higher levels of Desulfovibrio, Roseburia, and Holdemania are observed in men than in women after the consumption of the LF diet. CONCLUSION: The results suggest the potential involvement of differences in gut microbiota in the unequal incidence of metabolic diseases between genders, and a sex-dependent effect on shaping the gut microbiota according to diet.