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A preliminary study on the changes of fecal short chain fatty acids in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury in the chronic phase

Spinal Cord Series and Cases volume 11, Article number: 3 (2025) Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Study design

Cross-sectional explorative observational study.

Setting

The China Rehabilitation Research Center is one of the centers for spinal cord injury in China, and this study investigates the Chinese part of spinal cord injury.

Objective

To observe the changes of fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) compared with normal controls.

Methods

Thirty-eight patients with TSCI who were hospitalized in Beijing Boai Hospital of China Rehabilitation Research Center from April, 2017 to October, 2018 were recruited. Basic data such as age, gender, neurological level, etiology, and defecation method were recorded, and neurogenic bowel dysfunction score (NBD) was assessed. Twenty-one healthy subjects from the staffs of Beijing Bo’ai Hospital were recruited as the control group. Fresh stool samples were collected and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to determine the contents of caproic acid, isovaleric acid, isobutyric acid, valeric acid, butyric acid, propionic acid and acetic acid in feces of TSCI patients and controls. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare SCFA levels between the two groups.

Results

Compared with healthy controls, the levels of isovaleric acid and isobutyric acid in the feces of TSCI patients increased, while the levels of butyric acid and acetic acid decreased, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

The fecal content of propionic acid and butyric acid decreased while that of isobutyric acid and isoamyl acid increased in patients with chronic TSCI.

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Data availability

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Department of Spinal and Neural Functional Reconstruction, Beijing Bo’ai Hospital, China Rehabilitation Research Center, for their generous support. They are grateful to the Department of Emergency, Beijing Bo’ai Hospital, China Rehabilitation Research Center, for their help.

Funding

This study was supported by the Beijing Bo’ai Hospital.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Dejian Zhang, Run Peng.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Bo’Ai Hospital, China Rehabilitation Research Center, 100068, Beijing, China

    Dejian Zhang

  2. School of Rehabilitation, Capital Medical University, 10069, Beijing, China

    Dejian Zhang, Run Peng & Degang Yang

  3. Department of Spinal and Neural Functional Reconstruction, Beijing Bo’Ai Hospital, China Rehabilitation Research Center, 100068, Beijing, China

    Run Peng & Degang Yang

Authors
  1. Dejian Zhang
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  2. Run Peng
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  3. Degang Yang
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Contributions

Dejian Zhang and Run Peng contributed equally to this work. Dejian Zhang conducted the search, collected and extracted the data, and wrote the manuscript. Run Peng extracted and analyzed the data, interpreted the results, and wrote the manuscript. Degang Yang extracted and analyzed the data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Degang Yang.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Beijing Bo’ai Hospital Clinical Trial Organization Ethics Committee. The protocol for this clinical trial is registered (registration no. ChiCTR-RPC-17010621) and is available in full at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (https://www.chictr.org.cn/). Informed consent was obtained from all participants. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

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Zhang, D., Peng, R. & Yang, D. A preliminary study on the changes of fecal short chain fatty acids in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury in the chronic phase. Spinal Cord Ser Cases 11, 3 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41394-025-00698-x

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