Associations Between Gut Microbiota, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Body Compo-sition in Physically Active Women with Multiple Sclerosis: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstrakt

Starting point: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with physiological impairments and gut microbiota dysbiosis. Whether physical activity mitigates these microbial shifts and how gut microbiota relates to cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in MS individuals remains unclear.

Group: Sixteen women with MS and sixteen healthy women meeting the WHO physical activity recommendations were included.

Methods: Gut microbiota composition was assessed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing targeting the V3–V4 region, body composition by bioimpedance analysis, and cardiorespiratory fitness by an incremental bicycle ergometer test.

Results: Despite being physically active, significantly lower CRF (e.g., VO₂max/kg, Loadmax/kg) and less favorable body composition (e.g., body fat percentage, waist circumference) were observed in MS women compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, reduced gut microbial diversity (Chao1) and lower relative abundance of several health-associated taxa (e.g., Faecalibacterium, Coprococcus, and Prevotellaceae) were identified in MS women. Notably, CRF emerged as the strongest discriminative factor between groups and was positively associated with microbial diversity and the abundance of health-associated bacterial taxa. Among the identified taxa, Veillonella demonstrated the strongest association with CRF, whereas Coprococcus was primarily associated with body composition.

Conclusions: Physically active MS women still differed from healthy controls in both physiological and microbial characteristics. CRF represented the strongest discriminative factor between groups and was positively associated with gut microbial diversity and health-associated bacterial taxa. Together, these findings suggest that CRF may represent an important component of the relationship between host physiology and gut microbiota composition in MS.