Department of Paediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Wilhelmina Children's Hospital of University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 AB, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Spaarne Gasthuis Academy Hoofddorp and Haarlem, 2000 VB, Haarlem, The Netherlands.
Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 5;9(1):16072. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52549-z.
Rectal swabs are potentially a valuable method for monitoring the gut microbiome in research and clinical settings, where it is important to adhere to strict timing, or where acute sampling is needed. It is currently unknown whether rectal swabs give comparable results to faecal samples regarding microbiota community composition in neonates and infants. To study how well the two sampling methods correlate in infants, we compared the 16S-rRNA-based sequencing results of 131 paired rectal swabs and faecal samples collected from 116 infants at two timepoints in early life. The paired samples were highly comparable regarding both diversity and overall community composition, and strongly correlated on taxonomical level. We observed no significant nor relevant contribution of sampling method to the variation in overall gut microbiota community composition in a multivariable model. Our study provides evidence supporting the use of rectal swabs as a reliable proxy for faecal samples in infant gut microbiota research.
直肠拭子在研究和临床环境中监测肠道微生物组可能是一种很有价值的方法，在这些环境中，严格遵守时间或需要急性采样非常重要。目前尚不清楚直肠拭子在新生儿和婴儿的微生物群落组成方面与粪便样本相比是否能提供可比的结果。为了研究两种采样方法在婴儿中的相关性，我们比较了 116 名婴儿在生命早期的两个时间点采集的 131 对直肠拭子和粪便样本的基于 16S-rRNA 的测序结果。配对样本在多样性和总体群落组成方面高度可比，并且在分类学水平上具有很强的相关性。我们在多变量模型中没有观察到采样方法对总体肠道微生物群落组成变化有显著或相关的贡献。我们的研究为直肠拭子作为婴儿肠道微生物组研究中粪便样本的可靠替代物提供了证据。
