Ren Zhichao, Liu Qing, Li Wenfeng, Wu Xian, Dong Yanling, Huang Yusen
Qingdao Eye Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Qingdao, China.
State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Shandong Eye Institute, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Qingdao, China.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2021 May 13;11:645907. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.645907. eCollection 2021.
The ocular surface possesses its own bacterial microbiota. Once given a chance, opportunistic pathogens within ocular microbiota may lead to corneal infection like bacterial keratitis (BK). To reveal the possible factor that makes people vulnerable to BK from the perspective of ocular bacterial microbiota, as well as to compare diagnostic information provided by high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing and bacterial culture, 20 patients with BK and 42 healthy volunteers were included. Conjunctival swabs and corneal scrapings collected from the diseased eyes of BK patients were subjected for both high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing and bacterial culture. Conjunctival swabs collected from the normal eyes of BK patients and healthy volunteers were sent only for sequencing. For identifying the pathogens causing BK, high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing presented a higher positive rate than bacterial culture (98.04% vs. 17.50%), with 92.11% reaching the genus level (including 10.53% down to the species level). However, none of the sequencing results was consistent with the cultural results. The sequencing technique appears to challenge culture, and could be a complement for pathogen identification. Moreover, compared to the eyes of healthy subjects, the ocular microbiota of three sample groups from BK patients contained significantly less and (determinate beneficial symbiotic bacteria), but significantly more , , , and (common ocular pathogenic bacteria). Therefore, it is speculated that the imbalance of protective and aggressive bacteria in the ocular microbiota of healthy people may trigger susceptibility to BK. Based on this speculation, it seems promising to prevent and treat infectious oculopathy through regulating ocular microbiota.
眼表拥有自身的细菌微生物群。一旦有机会，眼微生物群中的机会致病菌可能会导致角膜感染，如细菌性角膜炎（BK）。为了从眼细菌微生物群的角度揭示使人易患BK的可能因素，并比较高通量16S rDNA测序和细菌培养提供的诊断信息，纳入了20例BK患者和42名健康志愿者。从BK患者患眼中采集的结膜拭子和角膜刮片进行高通量16S rDNA测序和细菌培养。从BK患者正常眼和健康志愿者中采集的结膜拭子仅送去测序。为了鉴定引起BK的病原体，高通量16S rDNA测序的阳性率高于细菌培养（98.04%对17.50%），92.11%达到属水平（包括10.53%达到种水平）。然而，测序结果与培养结果均不一致。测序技术似乎对培养提出了挑战，并且可以作为病原体鉴定的补充。此外，与健康受试者的眼睛相比，BK患者三个样本组的眼微生物群中有益共生菌明显减少，而常见眼致病菌明显增多。因此，推测健康人眼微生物群中保护性细菌和侵袭性细菌的失衡可能引发对BK的易感性。基于这一推测，通过调节眼微生物群来预防和治疗感染性眼病似乎很有前景。
