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Updated: Jul 19, 2025
Noninvasive Sampling of Mucosal Lining Fluid for the Quantification of In Vivo Upper Airway Immune-mediator Levels
Published on: August 7, 2017
Microbial signature of intestine in children with allergic rhinitis
Panpan Zhang1, Xuehua Zhou1, Hong Tan1
1Department of Pediatrics, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Insights
Allergic rhinitis (AR) children in Chinese Mainland exhibit reduced gut microbial diversity and altered bacterial composition compared to healthy controls. These gut microbiota differences correlate with clinical indicators of AR severity.
Area of Science:
- Microbiome research
- Allergic diseases
- Pediatric health
Background:
- Infant gut microbial colonization patterns are linked to allergic disease development.
- Limited research exists on the gut microbiota of Allergic Rhinitis (AR) children in Chinese Mainland.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate gut microbial alterations in AR children from Chinese Mainland.
- Evaluate correlations between gut microbiota and clinical indices in AR.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of fecal samples from 24 AR children and 25 healthy controls (HCs).
- Next-generation sequencing of 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 regions.
- Spearman correlation analysis for clinical features and gut microbial data.
Main Results:
- AR children showed decreased Shannon index and increased Simpson index compared to HCs.
- Increased abundance of Bacteroidetes, Prevotellaceae, and Enterobacteriaceae in AR children, correlating with AR severity markers.
- Reduced abundance of specific genera (Agathobacter, Parasutterella, Roseburia, Subdoligranulum) in AR children, negatively associated with clinical indicators.
Conclusions:
- AR children in Chinese Mainland present with reduced microbial diversity and distinct gut microbiota profiles.
- These findings highlight unique gut microbiota characteristics in AR children.
- Further mechanistic studies are warranted to understand the role of gut microbiota in AR pathogenesis.
Introduction:
Previous studies have found that unique patterns of gut microbial colonization in infancy associated with the development of allergic diseases. However, there is no research on the gut microbiota characteristics of AR children in Chinese Mainland.
Objective:
To investigate the changes of gut microbial of AR children in Chinese Mainland and evaluate the correlation between gut microbial and clinical indexes.
Methods:
In this clinical study, fecal samples from 24 AR children and 25 healthy control children (HCs) were comparative via next generation sequencing of the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene. Analyzed the relationship between clinical features and gut microbial using Spearman correlation.
Results:
Compared to HCs, AR children showed significant decreases in Shannon index and significant increases in Simpson index at both the family and genera levels (all p < 0.05). In terms of bacterial composition, at the phylum level, AR children had higher abundance of Bacteroidetes than that in the HCs group (p < 0.05) and were significantly positively correlated with TNSS (p < 0.05). At the family level, AR children had higher abundance of Prevotellaceae and Enterobacteriaceae higher than that in the HCs group (all p < 0.05) and had a significantly positive correlation with TNSS, eosinophils (EOS) and total immunoglobulin E (tIgE) (all p < 0.05). At the genus level, reduced abundance of Agathobacter, Parasutterella, Roseburia and Subdoligranulum were also observed in the AR cohorts compared to HCs (all p < 0.05) and significantly negatively associated with TNSS, EOS, tIgE, QOL, and FeNO (all p < 0.05).
Conclusion:
AR children in Chinese Mainland were characterized by reduced microbial diversity and distinguished microbial characteristics in comparison with HCs. The observations of this study offer proof that distinctive gut microbiota profiles were present in AR children and necessitate further investigation in the form of mechanistic studies.
