ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Characterization of Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis in Calcium Oxalate Stone Patients with Comorbid Metabolic Syndrome
Provisionally accepted
- People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Ürümqi, China
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Objective: Metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for calcium oxalate stone, yet the underlying mechanism remain unclear. Gut microbiota is involved in human metabolic processes and is associated with both metabolic syndrome and calcium oxalate stone formation. Methods: In this study, 100 subjects were divided into four groups: calcium oxalate stone with metabolic syndrome (Group A), metabolic syndrome only (Group B), calcium oxalate stone only (Group C), and healthy controls (Group D), with 25 cases in each group. Gut microbiota composition and function were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. microbiota diversity, species differences, and metabolic function changes were assessed by combining clinical parameters and metabolic pathway (KEGG) annotation. Results: The α diversity in Group A was significantly lower than in the other three groups (Shannon index, P<0.05), and β diversity analysis revealed significant differences in bacterial community structure among all four groups (ANOSIM, P<0.05). In Group A, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-producing probiotics (e.g., Faecalibacterium, Faecalibacillus,Prevotella) were reduced, while pro-inflammatory bacteria (e.g., Eggerthella ,Anaerobacteriaceae) were enriched. RDA correlation analysis indicated that Faecalibacterium is negatively correlated with blood glucose levels ,Faecalibacterium and Roseburia are positively correlated with urinary pH. KEGG analysis showed that the bisphenol degradation pathway was reduced (logFC=-1.45, P=0.027) and the retinol metabolism pathway was enriched (logFC=0.928, P=0.006) in Group A compared to Group B. Conclusion: Patients with calcium oxalate stone and metabolic syndrome exhibit a "double imbalance" in gut microbiota: on the one hand, the reduced diversity of the microbiota and the decrease of SCFAs-producing microbiota weakened the metabolic protective effect of the gut microbiota; on the other hand, the enrichment of pro-inflammatory and pathogenic bacteria exacerbated metabolic disorders and inflammatory reactions. The present study reveals that gut microbiota play a role in the mechanism of metabolic syndrome promoting calcium oxalate stone formation, and these findings provide a theoretical basis for the use of probiotics to prevent calcium oxalate stone.
Keywords: Calcium oxalate stone, metabolic syndrome, gut microbiome, Renal calculi, etiology
Received: 10 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Batuer, Li, Liu, Wang, Dong, Abudurexiti and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xun Li, 369180474@qq.com
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