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Signs of aging in midlife: physical function and sex differences in microbiota

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Abstract

Microbiota composition has been linked to physical activity, health measures, and biological age, but a shared profile has yet to be shown. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between microbiota composition and measures of function, such as a composite measure of physical capacity, and biological age in midlife, prior to onset of age-related diseases. Seventy healthy midlife individuals (age 44.58 ± 0.18) were examined cross-sectionally, and their gut-microbiota profile was characterized from stool samples using 16SrRNA gene sequencing. Biological age was measured using the Klemera-Doubal method and a composition of blood and physiological biomarkers. Physical capacity was calculated based on sex-standardized functional tests. We demonstrate that the women had significantly richer microbiota, p = 0.025; however, microbiota diversity was not linked with chronological age, biological age, or physical capacity for either women or men. Men had slightly greater β-diversity; however, β-diversity was positively associated with biological age and with physical capacity for women only (p = 0.01 and p = 0.04; respectively). For women, an increase in abundance of Roseburia faecis and Collinsella aerofaciens, as well as genus Ruminococcus and Dorea, was significantly associated with higher biological age and lower physical capacity; an increase in abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila and genera Bacteroides and Alistipes was associated with younger biological age and increased physical capacity. Differentially abundant taxa were also associated with non-communicable diseases. These findings suggest that microbiota composition is a potential mechanism linking physical capacity and health status; personalized probiotics may serve as a new means to support health-promoting interventions in midlife. Investigating additional factors underlying this link may facilitate the development of a more accurate method to estimate the rate of aging.

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Data availability

The microbiota data used here is publicly available in the  European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) database, https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/view/PRJEB63185.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to all the participants for their willingness to contribute to this study.

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  1. Omry Koren and Maayan Agmon contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave 199, 3498838, Haifa, Israel

    Roy Tzemah-Shahar & Maayan Agmon

  2. Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel

    Sondra Turjeman, Efrat Sharon, Gila Gamliel & Omry Koren

  3. Epidemiology Unit, Hebrew University School of Public Health, Jerusalem, Israel

    Hagit Hochner

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Tzemah-Shahar, R., Turjeman, S., Sharon, E. et al. Signs of aging in midlife: physical function and sex differences in microbiota. GeroScience 46, 1477–1488 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-00905-3

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