Duodenal microbiome in chronic kidney disease

The intestinal microbiome is involved in the pathogenesis of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Despite its importance, the microbiome of the small intestinal mucosa has been little studied due to sampling difficulties, and previous studies have mainly focused on fecal sources for microbiome studies. We aimed to characterize the small intestinal microbiome of CKD patients by studying the microbiome collected from duodenal and fecal samples of CKD patients and healthy controls.

Overall, 28 stage 5 CKD patients and 21 healthy participants were enrolled. Mucosal samples were collected from the deep duodenum during esophagogastroduodenoscopy and fecal samples were also collected. The 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing using Qiime2 was used to investigate and compare the microbial structure and metagenomic function of the duodenal and fecal microbiomes.

The duodenal flora of CKD patients had decreased alpha diversity compared with the control group. On the basis of taxonomic composition, Veillonella and Prevotella were significantly reduced in the duodenal flora of CKD patients. The tyrosine and tryptophan metabolic pathways were enhanced in the urea toxin-related metabolic pathways based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database.

The small intestinal microbiome in CKD patients is significantly altered, indicating that increased intestinal permeability and production of uremic toxin may occur in the upper small intestine of CKD patients.