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Nutrition and Health (including climate and ecological aspects)

A retrospective analysis of vitamin B6 deficiency and associated changes of gut microbes in Crohn’s disease

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 77, pages 1034–1043 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are at risk of micronutrient deficiencies, particularly during flares. Vitamin B6 is required for the proper development of brain, nerves, and many other parts of the body. However, limited studies are available to describe the prevalence, relevance and consequences of vitamin B6 deficiencies in IBD. We aim to estimate the prevalence of vitamin B6 deficiencies in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients, to identify associated risk factors and to explore the alteration of intestinal microbiota related to vitamin B6 status.

Methods

A total of 360 CD patients and 55 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients from Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital of Tongji University were included. Serum vitamin B6 concentrations were collected from the computerized laboratory data. The logistic regression was used for statistical analysis. Fecal-associated microbiota was also analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing in another 20 CD patients (10 of vitamin B6 normal, 10 of vitamin B6 deficiency).

Results

The prevalence of vitamin B6 abnormality was significantly higher in CD than in UC patients. Logistic regression analysis showed that small bowel lesion, ileocolonic lesion (L3), extraintestinal manifestations, ileal resection, and usage of immunosuppressor were independently associated with abnormal vitamin B6 in CD. Interestingly, the microbial structure presented significant differences between two CD groups. PICRUSt2 prediction revealed that some enzymes and metabolic pathways between the two groups were significantly different.

Conclusions

Collectively, our analysis showed that vitamin B6 reduction occurred frequently in patients with CD and affected the intestinal flora of patients.

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Fig. 1: The prevalence of vitamin B6 abnormity and the concentrations of vitamin B6.
Fig. 2: Correlation between clinical characteristics and vitamin B6 levels.
Fig. 3: Microbial diversity and differential enrichment analysis.
Fig. 4: Enrichment of genera in CD patients.
Fig. 5
Fig. 6: The analysis of differential enrichment of pathway.

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Data availability

The 16S rRNA sequencing raw data has been deposited in the NCBI’s Sequence Read Archive database (BioProject: PRJNA867573).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the participants for their involvement in the survey.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82070562, 9194230064, 91942312 and 81800486) and the Shanghai Rising-Star Program (20QA1407700).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Zhongsheng Feng, Jinghan Hua.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for IBD Research, Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Zhongsheng Feng, Jinghan Hua, Fengjian Guo, Zhanju Liu, Yujie Zhao & Wei Wu

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Contributions

Data collation, statistical analysis and paper writing, ZF, JH and FG; data collection, paper revision, guidance, YZ and WW; research design, funding support, paper revision and review, ZL and WW. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yujie Zhao or Wei Wu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board for Clinical Research of the Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital of Tongji University. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

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Feng, Z., Hua, J., Guo, F. et al. A retrospective analysis of vitamin B6 deficiency and associated changes of gut microbes in Crohn’s disease. Eur J Clin Nutr 77, 1034–1043 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-023-01324-5

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