Comparison of the ocular surface microbiota between thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy patients and healthy subjects.

PURPOSE

Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) is a chronic autoimmune disease. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to investigate the diversity and composition of the ocular microbiota in patients with TAO.

METHODS

Patients with TAO did not receive treatment for the disease and did not have exposed keratitis. Patients with TAO (TAO group) and healthy individuals (control group) were compared. All samples were swabbed at the conjunctival vault of the lower eyelid. The V3 to V4 region of the 16S rDNA was amplified using polymerase chain reaction and sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 Sequencing Platform. Statistical analysis was performed to analyze the differences between the groups and the correlation between ocular surface microbiota and the disease. The ocular surface microbiota of patients and healthy individuals were cultured.

RESULTS

The ocular surface microbiota structure of TAO patients changed significantly. The average relative abundance of and increased significantly in the TAO group. had a significantly decreased relative abundance (P<0.05). , , , and were positively correlated with the severity of clinical manifestations or disease activity (P<0.05). and other opportunistic pathogens were obtained by culture from TAO patients.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that the composition of ocular microbiota in patients with TAO was significantly different from that in healthy individuals. The ocular surface opportunistic pathogens, such as , , , and in TAO patients, increase the potential risk of ocular surface infection. The findings of this study provide a new avenue of research into the mechanism of ocular surface in TAO patients.