The microbiome has proven difficult to study, becoming an area of intense interest among researchers. Studies often conflict or prove hard to replicate, and confounding variables make it hard to generalize findings. Now a new study finds that even the time of day researchers look at the microbiome may significantly change its appearance.
Researchers who noted fluctuations in gut microbes that can be radically different within the same day are sounding the alarm that the finding warrants guidelines to help contextualize future studies. Published today in Nature Metabolism, the review noted a number of factors that can alter the composition of the gut microbiome, which was found to shift depending on whether samples were collected in the morning or evening. The microbiome is the collection of all the bacteria, viruses, and fungi living in a specific part of the body.
It’s an emerging field of study in which various microbial “signatures” have been linked to diseases and symptoms. “We found that when a sample is taken can dramatically affect which microbes were present and the conclusions the scientists drew about the disease they were studying,” said Dr. Amir Zarrinpar, gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in a news release.
Senior author on the study, Dr. Zarrinpar went on to say that this variability is likely why microbiome scientists struggle to replicate research. A closer look at res.
