Han Byul Lee

Background: This study aimed to comprehensively characterize the gut microbiome and identify individual and grouped gut microbes associated with food allergy (FA) using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.Methods: Fecal samples were collected from children with IgE‐mediated FA and from sex‐ and age‐matched controls. The V3–V4 variable regions of the 16S rRNA gene of the gut microbiome were profiled using next‐generation sequencing (Illumina, USA). Bacterial species richness, intracommunity diversity, and intergroup dissimilarity were evaluated. Functional profiles were predicted using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) and the Minimal Set of Pathways (MinPath) algorithm.Results: Fecal samples were collected from children with IgE‐mediated FA (n = 66) and from sex‐ and age‐matched controls (n = 22). Gut microbiome richness (p < 0.0001), intra‐community diversity (p < 0.0001), and inter‐community diversity (p = 0.0004) were higher in the healthy group than in the FA group. Patients with FA were enriched in Blautia, Fusicatenibacter, and Ruminococcus_g5 compared with healthy control individuals (all p < 0.05). Healthy control individuals were significantly enriched in Oscillibacter and Ruminococcus compared with patients with FA (all p < 0.05). Functional pathway analysis identified enrichment in pathways related to endoglucanase in healthy controls and the ATP‐binding cassette (ABC) transport system in FA patients.Conclusions: The gut microbiomes of patients with FA and healthy control individuals had different taxonomic abundances, and the microbiome richness and diversity of the bacterial flora of patients with FA were reduced compared with controls.

Lee JK, et al. Clin Orthop Surg. 2024 Jun;16:e38. https://doi.org/10.4055/cios23383

Background: Heart failure (HF) is relatively common cardiovascular disease with high mortality and morbidity. Although it is associated with many cardiovascular risk factors, the association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common chronic liver disease, and HF has not been evaluated in a large-scale cohort study. Thus, we evaluated the ability of the fatty liver Index (FLI), a surrogate marker of NAFLD, to predict the development of HF in healthy individuals. Methods: We analyzed the association between the FLI and new-onset HF with multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models in 308,578 healthy persons without comorbidities who underwent the National Health check-ups in the republic of Korea from 2009 to 2014. Results: A total of 2532 subjects (0.8%) were newly diagnosed with HF during the study period (a median of 5.4 years). We categorized our subjects into quartile groups according to FLI (Q1, 0–4.9; Q2, 5.0–12.5; Q3, 12.6–31.0; and Q4, > 31.0). The cumulative incidence of HF was significantly higher in the highest FLI group than in the lowest FLI group (Q1, 307 [0.4%] and Q4, 890 [1.2%]; P < 0.001). Adjusted hazard ratio (HRs) indicated that the highest FLI group was independently associated with an increased risk for HF (HR between Q4 and Q1, 2.709; 95% confidence interval = 2.380–3.085; P < 0.001). FLI was significantly associated with an increased risk of new-onset HF regardless of their baseline characteristics. Conclusions: Higher FLI was independently associated with increased risk of HF in a healthy Korean population.

Korean Circulation Journal 대한심장학회지 순환기 Roh JH, et al. Korean Circ J. 2019 Aug;50:e76. https://doi.org/10.4070/kcj.2019.0379