National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, England.
PLoS One. 2010 Jan 5;5(1):e8578. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008578.
A rich microbial environment in infancy protects against asthma [1], [2] and infections precipitate asthma exacerbations [3]. We compared the airway microbiota at three levels in adult patients with asthma, the related condition of COPD, and controls. We also studied bronchial lavage from asthmatic children and controls.
We identified 5,054 16S rRNA bacterial sequences from 43 subjects, detecting >70% of species present. The bronchial tree was not sterile, and contained a mean of 2,000 bacterial genomes per cm(2) surface sampled. Pathogenic Proteobacteria, particularly Haemophilus spp., were much more frequent in bronchi of adult asthmatics or patients with COPD than controls. We found similar highly significant increases in Proteobacteria in asthmatic children. Conversely, Bacteroidetes, particularly Prevotella spp., were more frequent in controls than adult or child asthmatics or COPD patients.
The results show the bronchial tree to contain a characteristic microbiota, and suggest that this microbiota is disturbed in asthmatic airways.
婴儿期丰富的微生物环境可预防哮喘[1]和感染[2]，而感染则可加重哮喘发作[3]。我们比较了哮喘、COPD 相关疾病患者以及对照组成人的气道微生物群落在三个层面上的差异。我们还研究了哮喘儿童和对照组的支气管灌洗液。
我们从 43 名受试者中鉴定出了 5054 条 16S rRNA 细菌序列，检测到了存在于 70%以上的物种。支气管树并非无菌，每平方厘米表面取样平均含有 2000 个细菌基因组。致病性变形菌，尤其是嗜血杆菌属，在成年哮喘患者或 COPD 患者的支气管中比对照组更为常见。我们发现哮喘儿童的变形菌也有类似的显著增加。相反，拟杆菌门，尤其是普雷沃氏菌属，在对照组中的频率高于成人或儿童哮喘患者或 COPD 患者。
这些结果表明支气管树中存在特征性的微生物群，提示哮喘气道中的这种微生物群被扰乱。
