Elsevier

Molecular Metabolism

Volume 5, Issue 12, December 2016, Pages 1175-1186
Molecular Metabolism

Original Article
Gut microbiota and glucometabolic alterations in response to recurrent partial sleep deprivation in normal-weight young individuals

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2016.10.003Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Possibly the first results of how short sleep impacts the human gut microbiota.

  • Two nights of short sleep do not significantly impact beta diversity.

  • The Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio is significantly affected by sleep loss.

  • Fecal short-chain fatty acid levels do not change depending on sleep duration.

  • Increased insulin resistance after sleep loss is unrelated to alterations in the microbiota.

Abstract

Objective

Changes to the microbial community in the human gut have been proposed to promote metabolic disturbances that also occur after short periods of sleep loss (including insulin resistance). However, whether sleep loss affects the gut microbiota remains unknown.

Methods

In a randomized within-subject crossover study utilizing a standardized in-lab protocol (with fixed meal times and exercise schedules), we studied nine normal-weight men at two occasions: after two nights of partial sleep deprivation (PSD; sleep opportunity 02:45–07:00 h), and after two nights of normal sleep (NS; sleep opportunity 22:30–07:00 h). Fecal samples were collected within 24 h before, and after two in-lab nights, of either NS or PSD. In addition, participants underwent an oral glucose tolerance test following each sleep intervention.

Results

Microbiota composition analysis (V4 16S rRNA gene sequencing) revealed that after two days of PSD vs. after two days of NS, individuals exhibited an increased Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio, higher abundances of the families Coriobacteriaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae, and lower abundance of Tenericutes (all P < 0.05) – previously all associated with metabolic perturbations in animal or human models. However, no PSD vs. NS effect on beta diversity or on fecal short-chain fatty acid concentrations was found. Fasting and postprandial insulin sensitivity decreased after PSD vs. NS (all P < 0.05).

Discussion

Our findings demonstrate that short-term sleep loss induces subtle effects on human microbiota. To what extent the observed changes to the microbial community contribute to metabolic consequences of sleep loss warrants further investigations in larger and more prolonged sleep studies, to also assess how sleep loss impacts the microbiota in individuals who already are metabolically compromised.

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Keywords

Bacteroidetes
Firmicutes
Insulin resistance
Intestinal microbiome
Short-chain fatty acid
Sleep restriction

Abbreviations

d2
day 2
F:B
Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes (ratio)
HDL
high-density lipoprotein
HOMA-IR
homeostatic assessment model of insulin resistance
LDL
low-density lipoprotein
NS
normal sleep
OGTT
oral glucose tolerance test
OTU
Operational Taxonomic Units
PERMANOVA
permutational analysis of variance
PSD
partial sleep deprivation
SCFA
short-chain fatty acid
T2DM
type-2 diabetes mellitus

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