Alteration of the Gut Microbiota in Rhesus Monkey with Spontaneous Osteoarthritis

Abstract Background Osteoarthritis (OA) can cause stiffness and chronic pain, which affect patients' health and quality of life. Emerging evidence suggests the microbiome plays an important role in the pathogenesis of OA. However, there are very few studies on the intestinal microbiota of OA. The spontaneous osteoarthritis in rhesus macaque is similar to osteoarthritis in human. The artificially reared macaques showed that captivity “humanizes” the primate microbiome can also better control the diet and drug use. Methods We collected colonic contents of the rhesus macaque with spontaneous OA for intestinal microbiota analysis by metagenomics sequencing. The data were analyzed using R packages. The genomic features were identified by a metagenomic biomarker discovery approach called linear discriminant analysis effect size. Results Our results indicate that the diversity and composition of intestinal microbiota in monkeys with OA are different compared to the normal monkeys. Prevotellaceae and Lactobacillus was significantly decreased in the monkeys with osteoarthritis. Lactobacillales, Lactobacillaceae, Mycoplasmataceae and Lactobacillus were significantly increased in the monkeys with OA. Functional analysis of the microbiota also predicts cartilage damage in the monkeys with osteoarthritis. Conclusions Our results are largely consistent with the composition of microbiota in cartilage of OA patients. Our results exclude the effects of food, living environment, and antibiotic use, so we have found some microbes that can be a biomarker for the diagnosis of osteoarthritis.