ESPEN 2022 Late Breaking Abstracts

Topic: Nutrition and chronic disease

Abstract Submission Identifier: ESPEN22-LB-2237

EXPLORING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DIET AND THE HUMAN GUT MICROBIOME DIVERSITY IN PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

G. T. Mathieu^*, ¹, C. F. Petersen ¹, L. K. Nørgaard ¹, I. Tetens ¹, D. S. Nielsen ², M. Passali ^{3, 4}, J. L. B. Frederiksen ^{3, 4}

¹Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, ²Department of Food Science, ³Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, ⁴Danish Multiple Sclerosis Clinic, Rigshospitalet – Glostrup, Glostrup, Denmark

Rationale: Compare dietary intake and identify differences of gut microbiome diversity (GMD) between patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy controls (HCs). Explore the association between diet and the GMD in MS-patients and HCs. Investigate if markers of a healthy diet and/or a high GMD are associated with MS disease severity.

Methods: Cross-sectional case-control study including 125 participants (78 MS-patients, 47 HCs). Dietary intake-assessment by MyFood24® and a FFQ. GMD-assessment by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, α-diversity (Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Observed features), and β-diversity (Bray-Curtis, weighted UniFrac distance (UniFrac)). Disease severity-assessment by MS Severity Score (MSSS), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), and SymptoMScreen.

Results: Based on the total study population, 17% had a fruit and vegetable (FV) -intake ≥ 600 g/10 MJ/day, 34% had a fiber-intake ≥ 30g/10 MJ/day, and 40% had a saturated fatty acid (SFA) -intake ≤ 10 E%. MSSS correlated with SFA-intake in both g/day and g/MJ/day. UniFrac and Bray-Curtis metrics showed differences between MS-patients and HCs. Bray-Curtis showed GMD differences between high and low SymptoMScreen scores and UniFrac showed differences in FV-intakes for the MS-patients and the total study population, as well as in fiber-intakes for the HCs.

Conclusion: The MS-patients and HCs had different GMDs despite having similar dietary intakes. Most study participants did not comply with the current Danish official dietary guidelines¹ and Nordic nutritional recommendations². A high disease severity is correlated with a high SFA-intake and might be associated with an altered GMD.

References:         1. Fødevarestyrelsen (2021) (a) ’De officielle Kostråd - godt for sundhed og klima’. Available at: https://altomkost.dk/raad-og-anbefalinger/de-officielle-kostraad-godt-for-sundhed-og-klima/ (Accessed: 5 November 2021).

        2. Ministers, N. C. of and Nordic Council of Ministers (2014) ‘Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2012: Integrating nutrition and physical activity’. doi: 10.26530/oapen_483279.

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared

Keywords: Diet assessment, Gut microbiome diversity, Multiple sclerosis