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Cited by 973Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) ResearchOral microbiology and periodontitis researchGut microbiota and health

Analysis of the lung microbiome in the “healthy” smoker and in COPD.

Open access
Erb-Downward, John R., Thompson, Deborah L., Han, Meilan K., Freeman, Christine M., McCloskey, Lisa, Schmidt, Lindsay A., Young, Vincent B., Toews, Galen B. +4 more·2011·PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0016384PMC PMC3043049
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Abstract

Although culture-independent techniques have shown that the lungs are not sterile, little is known about the lung microbiome in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We used pyrosequencing of 16S amplicons to analyze the lung microbiome in two ways: first, using bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) to sample the distal bronchi and air-spaces; and second, by examining multiple discrete tissue sites in the lungs of six subjects removed at the time of transplantation. We performed BAL on three never-smokers (NS) with normal spirometry, seven smokers with normal spirometry ("healthy smokers", HS), and four subjects with COPD (CS). Bacterial 16 s sequences were found in all subjects, without significant quantitative differences between groups. Both taxonomy-based and taxonomy-independent approaches disclosed heterogeneity in the bacterial communities between HS subjects that was similar to that seen in healthy NS and two mild COPD patients. The moderate and severe COPD patients had very limited community diversity, which was also noted in 28% of the healthy subjects. Both approaches revealed extensive membership overlap between the bacterial communities of the three study groups. No genera were common within a group but unique across groups. Our data suggests the existence of a core pulmonary bacterial microbiome that includes Pseudomonas, Streptococcus, Prevotella, Fusobacterium, Haemophilus, Veillonella, and Porphyromonas. Most strikingly, there were significant micro-anatomic differences in bacterial communities within the same lung of subjects with advanced COPD. These studies are further demonstration of the pulmonary microbiome and highlight global and micro-anatomic changes in these bacterial communities in severe COPD patients.

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  • Under certain conditions, Streptococcus gordonii can attack host fibronectin, and subsequent cytokine production can induce inflammatory responses.

    “Under certain conditions, Streptococcus gordonii can attack host fibronectin, and subsequent cytokine production can induce inflammatory responses (Erb-Downward et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2018).”

    From Oral Microbiome and SARS-CoV-2: Beware of Lung Co-infection (2020) · cites this paper as Erb-Downward et al., 2011

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Authors
Erb-Downward, J. R., Thompson, D. L., Han, M. K., Freeman, C. M., McCloskey, L., Schmidt, L. A., Young, V. B., Toews, G. B., Curtis, J. L., Sundaram, B., Martinez, F. J., & Huffnagle, G. B.
Affiliations
University of Michigan (US)
Corresponding author
Huffnagle, Gary B.
ORCID
Venue
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2011-02-22
Volume
6
Issue
2
Pages
e16384
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0016384
PMC
PMC3043049
OpenAlex
W2163401084
Cited by
973
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 32 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 66 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 74 · 2019: 62 · 2018: 85 · 2017: 80 · 2016: 75 · 2015: 72 · 2014: 68 · 2013: 57 · 2012: 49
FWCI
50.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (R01 HL082480)
  • University of Michigan (UL1 RR024986)
  • National Institutes of Health (n01hr46162-13-0-1)
  • Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (UL 1RR024986)
  • University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center (P30 CA46952, CA46952)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL082480, N01HR046162, T32HL007749)
  • National Cancer Institute (P30 CA 46952)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK070875, RR024986, R01DK070875)
  • National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR024986)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research
  • Health Sciences › Dentistry › Periodontics › Oral microbiology and periodontitis research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
Keywords
lung microbiome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, healthy smokers, bronchoalveolar lavage, lung tissue sampling, bacterial community diversity, core microbiome, Pseudomonas, Streptococcus, Prevotella, Fusobacterium, Haemophilus, Veillonella, Porphyromonas, lung transplantation
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid, Bronchoscopy, DNA, Bacterial, Female, Health, Humans, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Smoking, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Metagenome

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