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Updated: Aug 1, 2026

Guided Protocol for Fecal Microbial Characterization by 16S rRNA-Amplicon Sequencing
Published on: March 19, 2018
Exploring the Association between Gut and Urine Microbiota and Prostatic Disease including Benign Prostatic
Kai-Yen Tsai1, Deng-Chyang Wu2,3,4, Wen-Jeng Wu3,5,6
1Department of Post-Baccalaureate Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Numerous microorganisms residing in the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts affect host health. We investigated stool and voided urine samples collected from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or prostate cancer (PC) and a control group to explore the potential relationship between human microbiota and prostatic disease, and aimed to identify correlations and pathogenic taxonomic units. We studied microbial composition using 16S rRNA sequencing to identify operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Extracted genome was amplified and filtered sequences were used to classify OTUs based on their specific taxonomy. No statistically significant differences were observed in stool samples among the groups. However, urine samples indicated different microbiota compositions in different patient populations. The top five microbial genera that showed significant differences between the BPH and control groups were Alcaligenes, Pseudomonas, Lactobacillus, Akkermansia, and Cetobacterium. Faecalibacterium, Staphylococcus, Ruminococcaceae_UCG_002, Neisseria, and Agathobacter were the genera with the largest proportion differences when comparing the PC and control groups. We discovered that the urine microbiota composition of the BPH and PC groups was distinct from that of the control group. Due to the impact of microbiota on prostatic disease, it is necessary to identify specific microbes for further research.
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