Open AccessLongitudinal analysis of the lung microbiome in lung transplantation
Author(s) -
Borewicz Klaudyna,
Pragman Alexa A.,
Kim Hyeun Bum,
Hertz Marshall,
Wendt Christine,
Isaacson Richard E.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/1574-6968.12053
Subject(s) - microbiome , lung transplantation , bronchoalveolar lavage , biology , firmicutes , lung , transplantation , proteobacteria , betaproteobacteria , immunology , hypervariable region , pathology , medicine , bacteria , genetics , 16s ribosomal rna , antibody , actinobacteria
Lung transplant recipients experience poor long‐term survival, largely due to chronic rejection. The pathogenesis of chronic rejection is incompletely understood, but bacterial colonization of the lung is associated with chronic rejection, while antibiotic use slows its progression. The lung harbors a bacterial community, termed the microbiome, which is present both in health and disease. We hypothesize that the lung microbiome will change following transplantation, and these changes may correspond to the development of rejection. Twelve bronchoalveolar lavage fluid ( BALF ) samples were obtained from four patients at three time points after transplantation, and two BALF samples were obtained from healthy, nontransplant controls. The microbiome of each sample was determined by pyrosequencing the 16 S r RNA gene hypervariable 3 region. The data were analyzed using mothur , Ribosomal Database Project Classifier , Fast UniFrac , and Metastats . Transplanted lungs contained more bacterial sequences and demonstrated more microbial diversity than did control lungs. Bacteria in the phyla P roteobacteria (class B etaproteobacteria ) predominated in the transplant samples. In contrast, the microbiome of the healthy lung consisted of the phyla P roteobacteria (class G ammaproteobacteria ) and F irmicutes . The microbiome of the transplanted lung is vastly different from that of healthy lungs, mainly due to the presence of the family B urkholderiaceae in transplant samples.