{"doi":"10.1167/iovs.66.4.21","title":"Fecal Microbial Profiles and Short-Chain Fatty Acid/Bile Acid Metabolomics in Patients With Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Pilot Study","abstract":"Purpose: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a multifactorial disease, and studies have implicated the role of gut microbiota in its pathogenesis. However, characterization of microbiome dysbiosis and associated microbial-derived metabolomic profiles across AMD stages remains unknown. In this pilot study, we explored how gut microbiome composition and gut-derived metabolites differ in AMD. Methods: Our pilot study analyzed fasted stool samples that were collected from 22 patients at a tertiary academic center. Subjects were classified as control, intermediate AMD, or advanced AMD based on clinical presentation. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and standard chromatography-mass spectrometry methods were used to identify bacterial taxonomy composition and abundance of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and bile acids (BAs), respectively. Genetic testing was used to investigate the frequency of 14 high-risk single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with AMD in the AMD cohort. Results: Forty-three differentially abundant genera were present among the control, intermediate, and advanced groups. Taxa with known roles in immunologic pathways, such as Desulfovibrionales (q = 0.10) and Terrisporobacter (q = 1.16e-03), were in greater abundance in advanced AMD patients compared to intermediate. Advanced AMD patients had decreased abundance of 12 SCFAs, including acetate (P = 0.002), butyrate (P = 0.04), and propionate (P = 0.01), along with 12 BAs, including taurocholic acid (P = 0.02) and tauroursodeoxycholic acid (P = 0.04). Frequencies of high-risk SNPs were not significantly different between the intermediate and advanced AMD groups. Conclusions: This pilot study identifies distinct gut microbiome compositions and metabolomic profiles associated with AMD and its stages, providing preliminary evidence of a potential link between gut microbiota and AMD pathogenesis. To validate these findings and elucidate the underlying mechanisms, future research with larger cohorts and more comprehensive sampling is strongly recommended.","journal":"Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science","year":2025,"id":512855,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9505,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":987314,"name":"Jason Xiao","orcid":"0000-0003-1252-5915","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":689437,"name":"Amir Mani","orcid":"0000-0003-4417-622X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1373778,"name":"Quadis Evans","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1319514,"name":"Christopher Phung","orcid":"0009-0005-2993-7037","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1254404,"name":"Hugo Barba","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":60555,"name":"Bingqing Xie","orcid":"0000-0001-9246-9321","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":262010,"name":"Ashley M. Sidebottom","orcid":"0000-0002-8670-9090","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":406633,"name":"Anitha Sundararajan","orcid":"0000-0001-9550-3644","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":348145,"name":"Huaiying Lin","orcid":"0000-0003-2339-9491","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1025460,"name":"Ramanujam Ramaswamy","orcid":"0000-0001-7448-6574","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1373060,"name":"David Dao","orcid":"0000-0001-9096-7335","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1373779,"name":"Reem Gonnah","orcid":null,"position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1373061,"name":"M. E. Yehia","orcid":"0009-0006-9204-1038","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1309599,"name":"Seenu M. Hariprasad","orcid":"0000-0003-0985-9551","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":643716,"name":"Mark D’Souza","orcid":null,"position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":642673,"name":"Dinanath Sulakhe","orcid":"0000-0002-4680-1212","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":109507,"name":"Eugene B. Chang","orcid":"0000-0001-5972-8248","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":407555,"name":"Dimitra Skondra","orcid":"0000-0003-3862-6159","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1373777,"name":"Zaid Parekh","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":90,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:48:11.233009Z","pmid":"40202735","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}