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Association between tobacco use and the upper gastrointestinal microbiome among Chinese men

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Abstract

Purpose

Tobacco causes many adverse health conditions and may alter the upper gastrointestinal (UGI) microbiome. However, the few studies that studied the association between tobacco use and the microbiome were small and underpowered. Therefore, we investigated the association between tobacco use and the UGI microbiome in Chinese men.

Methods

We included 278 men who underwent esophageal cancer screening in Henan Province, China. Men were categorized as current, former, or never smokers from questionnaire data. UGI tract bacterial cells were characterized using the Human Oral Microbial Identification Microarray. Counts of unique bacterial species and genera estimated alpha diversity. For beta diversity, principal coordinate (PCoA) vectors were generated from an unweighted UniFrac distance matrix. Polytomous logistic regression models were used for most analyses.

Results

Of the 278 men in this study, 46.8 % were current smokers and 12.6 % were former smokers. Current smokers tended to have increased alpha diversity (mean 42.3 species) compared to never smokers (mean 38.9 species). For a 10 species increase, the odds ratio (OR) for current smoking was 1.29 (95 % CI 1.04–1.62). Beta diversity was also associated with current smoking. The first two PCoA vectors were strongly associated with current smoking (PCoA1 OR 0.66; 95 % CI 0.51–0.87; PCoA2 OR 0.73; 95 % CI 0.56–0.95). Furthermore, Dialister invisus and Megasphaera micronuciformis were more commonly detected in current smokers than in never smokers.

Conclusions

Current smoking was associated with both alpha and beta diversity in the UGI tract. Future work should consider how the UGI microbiome is associated with smoking-related diseases.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the staff in Linzhou, China. This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program and the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

Conflict of interest

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Emily Vogtmann, Guoqin Yu, Neal D. Freedman, Jianxin Shi, Mitchell H. Gail, Sanford M. Dawsey & Christian C. Abnet

  2. Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Emily Vogtmann & Roberto Flores

  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD, USA

    Bruce A. Dye

  4. Cancer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Guo-Qing Wang, Wen-Qiang Wei, Hui-Qin Guo & You-Lin Qiao

  5. Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Vanja Klepac-Ceraj & Bruce J. Paster

  6. Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA

    Vanja Klepac-Ceraj

  7. Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Bruce J. Paster

  8. Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, DCEG, NCI, 9609 Medical Center Dr, 6E404, MSC 9768, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Emily Vogtmann

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  1. Emily Vogtmann
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  2. Roberto Flores
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  3. Guoqin Yu
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  15. Christian C. Abnet
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Correspondence to Emily Vogtmann.

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Vogtmann, E., Flores, R., Yu, G. et al. Association between tobacco use and the upper gastrointestinal microbiome among Chinese men. Cancer Causes Control 26, 581–588 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-015-0535-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-015-0535-2

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