BACKGROUND

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) seriously threaten the health and quality of life of patients. The microbiota is the primary reason for the refractory and high recurrence of DFU. This study aimed to determine the wound microbiota at different DFU stages.

METHODS

Wound samples were collected from 48 patients with DFU and divided into three phases: inflammatory (I, n = 49), proliferation (P, n = 22), and remodeling (R, n = 19). The wound samples obtained at different stages were then subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in the different groups was calculated according to the criterion of 97 % sequence similarity. The diversity of the microbiota differentially presented bacterial taxa at the phylum and genus levels, and important phyla and genera in the different groups were further explored.

RESULTS

After sequencing, 3351, 925, and 777 OTUs were observed in groups I, P, and R, respectively, and 175 OTUs overlapped. Compared with the inflammatory stage, the α-diversity of wound microbiota at proliferation and remodeling stages was significantly decreased ( < 0.05). At the phylum level, , , , and were the dominant phyla, accounting for more than 90 % of all the phyla. At the genus level, Random Forest and linear discriminant analysis effect size analyses showed that , , , , , , and were the signature wound microbiota for the inflammatory stage; , , , and were important species for the proliferation stage; and the crucial genera for the remodeling stage were , , , , and .

CONCLUSIONS

There were significant differences in the composition and structure of the wound microbiota in patients with DFU at different stages, which may lay a foundation for effectively promoting wound healing in DFU.