Comparison of the upper and lower airway microbiota in children with chronic lung diseases.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

The lower airway microbiota is important in normal immunological development and chronic lung diseases (CLDs). Young children cannot expectorate and because of the uncertainty whether upper airway samples reflect the lower airway microbiota, there have been few longitudinal paediatric studies to date.

Objectives

To assess whether throat swabs (TS) and cough swabs (CS) are representative of the lower airway microbiota.

Methods

TS, CS, bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchial brushings were prospectively collected from 49 children undergoing fibreoptic bronchoscopy for CLDs. Bacterial DNA was extracted and the 16S rRNA gene V4 region sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq.

Results

5.97 million high quality reads were obtained from 168 samples (47 TS, 37 CS, 42

SUBMITTER: Ahmed B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6071972 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature