{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T04:55:25Z","timestamp":1790916925746,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790899200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n Early pregnancy loss (EPL) is a common adverse pregnancy outcome with a complex and incompletely understood etiology. Moreover, metagenomic studies of the gut microbiota in women with EPL in Northwest China remain limited.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Objective<\/jats:title>\n This study aimed to characterize differences in gut microbial composition and predicted functional potential between women with EPL (EPL group) and normal controls (NCs) using shotgun metagenomic sequencing.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n \n We collected fecal samples from 216 women in Northwest China (EPL group,\n n<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f72; NCs,\n n<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f144). Shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed to analyze gut microbiota composition and assess the functional potential of the microbiota.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Our study revealed significant differences in the composition of the gut microbiota between the EPL group and NCs, as assessed by alpha and beta diversity analyses (\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f&lt;\u202f0.001).\n Bacteroides<\/jats:italic>\n was significantly more abundant in the EPL group, whereas\n Coprococcus<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Bifidobacterium<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Roseburia<\/jats:italic>\n were significantly more abundant in NCs. Compared to NCs, the EPL group had higher relative abundances of species such as\n Bacteroides stercoris<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Bacteroides plebeius<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Bacteroides uniformis<\/jats:italic>\n , but lower relative abundances of\n Bifidobacterium adolescentis<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Megamonas funiformis<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Fusicatenibacter saccharivorans<\/jats:italic>\n . Partial correlation analysis showed that Bacteroidetes was positively correlated with EPL at the phylum level. At the genus level,\n Odoribacter<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Parabacteroides<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Haemophilus<\/jats:italic>\n were positively correlated with EPL, whereas\n Corynebacterium<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Roseburia<\/jats:italic>\n were negatively correlated with EPL. Metabolic pathway analysis revealed that pathways such as L-rhamnose degradation I, L-arginine biosynthesis III and 2-oxobutanoate degradation I exhibited significant positive correlations with EPL. In contrast, pathways including purine nucleobases degradation I (anaerobic) and chitin derivatives degradation showed significant negative correlations with EPL.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n The results of our study revealed significant differences in gut microbiota composition and metabolic pathways between the EPL group and NCs, indicating that gut microbiome alterations are associated with EPL.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1895733","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T04:37:19Z","timestamp":1790915839000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Structural and functional characterization of the gut microbiota in women with early pregnancy loss in Northwest China"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Hui","family":"Yao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]},{"name":"Reproductive Medicine Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juanjuan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]},{"name":"Cuiying Biomedical Research Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cai","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]},{"name":"Reproductive Medicine Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juanjuan","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]},{"name":"Reproductive Medicine Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ling","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]},{"name":"Reproductive Medicine Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qi","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]},{"name":"Cuiying Biomedical Research Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]},{"name":"Reproductive Medicine Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e65088","DOI":"10.7554\/elife.65088","article-title":"Integrating taxonomic, functional, and strain-level profiling of diverse microbial communities with bioBakery 3","volume":"10","author":"Beghini","year":"2021","journal-title":"eLife"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"112409","DOI":"10.1016\/j.exger.2024.112409","article-title":"Microbiome interactions with different risk factors in development of myocardial infarction","volume":"189","author":"Bijla","year":"2024","journal-title":"Exp. 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