Assessing the gut microbiota composition in older adults: connections to physical activity and healthy ageing

Ramos, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0222-8063, Magistro, D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2554-3701, Walton, GE, Whitham, A, Camp, N ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0972-9722, Poveda, C, Gibson, GR, Hough, J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6970-5779, Kinnear, W and Hunter, K, 2025. Assessing the gut microbiota composition in older adults: connections to physical activity and healthy ageing. GeroScience. ISSN 2509-2715

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Abstract

The composition and functionality of the gut microbiota (GM) changes throughout the life course. As we move into older age, it starts to shift towards a less healthy one, which may lead to an imbalance in the GM community. Strategies that can reverse age-related dysbiosis are an important part of healthy aging. Little is known about the GM composition of older adults with different physical activity (PA) levels and whether it might contribute to healthy ageing. The aim of this study was to compare the GM composition of older adults with different PA levels and assess if it is associated with healthy ageing. 101 participants aged between 65-85 years undertook anthropometric measures, a 6-min walking test, wore an accelerometer for 7 days and provided a faecal sample. Faecal GM composition was analysed using 16S rRNA sequenc-ing. We found that those who fulfilled the WHO/UK PA recommendations had higher relative abundance of several health-related bacteria such as Lactobacillus, F. prausnitzii and Roseburia intestinalis and lower abundance of disease-associated bacteria such as D.piger or Enterobacterales when compared to those who did not reach PA recommendations. These findings suggest that PA might improve the GM composition and has the potential to, at least partially, revert age-associated dysbiosis and promote healthy ageing.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	GeroScience
Creators:	Ramos, C., Magistro, D., Walton, G.E., Whitham, A., Camp, N., Poveda, C., Gibson, G.R., Hough, J., Kinnear, W. and Hunter, K.
Publisher:	Springer
Date:	17 March 2025
ISSN:	2509-2715
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s11357-025-01605-w DOI 2408612 Other
Rights:	© Crown 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	18 Mar 2025 09:42
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2025 09:42
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53260

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