Recent research has revealed the importance of the appendix in regulating the intestinal microbiota and mucosal immunity. However, the changes that occur in human gut microbial communities after appendectomy have never been analyzed. We assessed the alterations in gut bacterial and fungal populations associated with a history of appendectomy. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the association between appendectomy and the gut microbiome using 16S and ITS2 sequencing on fecal samples from 30 healthy individuals with prior appendectomy (HwA) and 30 healthy individuals without appendectomy (HwoA). Analysis showed that the gut bacterial composition of samples from HwA was less diverse than that of samples from HwoA and had a lower abundance of Roseburia, Barnesiella, Butyricicoccus, Odoribacter, and Butyricimonas species, most of which were short-chain fatty acids-producing microbes. The HwA subgroup analysis indicated a trend toward restoration of the HwoA bacterial microbiome over time after appendectomy. HwA had higher gut fungi composition and diversity than HwoA, even 5 years after appendectomy. Compared with those in samples from HwoA, the abundance correlation networks in samples from HwA displayed more complex fungal–fungal and fungal–bacterial community interactions. This study revealed a marked impact of appendectomy on gut bacteria and fungi, which was particularly durable for fungi.

最近的研究揭示了阑尾在调节肠道微生物群和粘膜免疫方面的重要性。然而，从未分析过阑尾切除术后人类肠道微生物群落发生的变化。我们评估了与阑尾切除术相关的肠道细菌和真菌种群的变化。在这项横断面研究中，我们使用 16S 和 ITS2 测序对来自 30 名既往接受过阑尾切除术 (HwA) 的健康个体和 30 名未接受过阑尾切除术 (HwoA) 的健康个体的粪便样本进行了研究，研究了阑尾切除术与肠道微生物组之间的关联。分析表明，来自 HwA 的样本的肠道细菌组成不像来自 HwoA 的样本那么多样化，并且具有较低的丰度罗斯布里亚, 巴内塞拉, 酪酸球菌, 臭杆菌， 和 丁酸单胞菌种，其中大部分是产生短链脂肪酸的微生物。HwA 亚组分析表明，阑尾切除术后 HwoA 细菌微生物群有恢复的趋势。即使在阑尾切除术后 5 年，HwA 的肠道真菌组成和多样性也高于 HwoA。与来自 HwoA 的样本相比，来自 HwA 的样本中的丰度相关网络显示出更复杂的真菌-真菌和真菌-细菌群落相互作用。这项研究揭示了阑尾切除术对肠道细菌和真菌的显着影响，这对真菌特别持久。