PMC

Taxonomic composition of the intestinal microbiota. Percent abundance of bacterial phyla

Correlations between alpha diversity and serum biomarkers. Alpha diversity showed no significant correlation between (a) serum CRP (r = −0.2110, P = 0.23), (b) serum D-lactate (r = 0.12, P = 0.50), (c) indoxyl sulfate (r = −0.12, P = 0.07), or (d) p-cresyl sulfate (r = −0.03, P = 0.89). Spearman nonparametric correlation

Microbial beta diversity. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of PD patients compared to control. Weighted UniFrac distance showed significant separation between microbial communities in patients with ESRD on PD (blue dots) and the healthy control patients (red dots) (R statistic = 0.2656, P = 0.010)

Serum level of CRP and D-lactate. ESRD patients showed no significant differences for (a) serum CRP P = 0.0590 or (b) serum D-lactate P = 0.5669 (Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test.). N = 8–12 in individual groups. Box and whisker plots illustrate median (line within the box) and minimum and maximum values (whiskers)

Serum levels of bacterially produced uremic toxins. ESRD patients showed significantly increased levels of (a) p-cresyl sulfate P < 0.0001 (Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test.) and (b) indoxyl sulfate P < 0.0001 (Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test.). N = 7–12 in individual groups. Box and whisker plots illustrate median (line within the box) and minimum and maximum values (whiskers)

Microbial alpha diversity. Box plots were generated to compare the bacterial richness within groups. Patients with ESRD on PD as well as kidney transplant patients had significantly decreased alpha diversity as demonstrated by different metrics of alpha diversity: (a) phylogenetic diversity whole tree (P = 0.0031) and (b) chao-1 richness estimation (P = 0.003). Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test. N = 7–11 in individual groups. Box and whisker plots illustrate median (line within the box) and minimum and maximum values (whiskers)

Relative abundance of the four dominant phyla of the intestinal microbiota. a Patients on PD showed significantly reduced abundance in Firmicutes (P = 0.0228) when compared to healthy control. b Bacteroidetes was significantly increased in HD patients (P = 0.0462) when compared to control. c Proteobacteria was significantly increased in PD patients (P = 0.0233) when compared to HD patients. d The abundance of Actinobacteria was significantly decreased in PD patients (P = 0.004) when compared to control. Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test. N = 6–11 in individual groups. Box and whisker plots illustrate median (line within the box) and minimum and maximum values (whiskers)

Relative abundance of intestinal microbiota at the family level. a Enterobacteriaceae was significantly increased in patients on peritoneal dialysis (P = 0.0020). b Clostridiaceae showed no significant difference among the groups (P = 0.8378). c The abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae was significantly decreased in PD and transplant patients (P = 0.0020). d There were no significant differences in Lactobacillaceae among the groups (P = 0.8765). Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test. N = 6–11 in individual groups. Box and whisker plots illustrate median (line within the box) and minimum and maximum values (whiskers)