Figure 3.
Alpha diversity in samples from patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) at hospital admission (T1; n=16) and discharge (T2; n=10) and a healthy comparison group (HCG; n=12). Bacterial composition was characterized by 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, and sequencing results were processed by the Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology (QIIME) pipeline. Richness was characterized by the (A) number of observed bacterial species in each sample; and (B) Chao-1 estimator of diversity. Differences in alpha (within-sample) diversity were compared in AN T1 vs. AN T2 vs. HCG with two-tailed Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests. At both time points (T1 and T2), the alpha diversity remained significantly lower in patients with AN vs. HCG, measured as either the number of observed species or Chao-1 estimator.