On March 18, 2024, Professor ZOU Zhen's team from the Institute of Life Sciences and Professor CHEN Chengzhi's team from the College of Public Health of Chongqing Medical University collaborated to publish a research paper titled "Intact lung tissue and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are both suitable for the evaluation of murine lung microbiome in acute lung injury" in the internationally renowned journal Microbiome.
Acute Lung Injury (ALI) and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) are common and critical respiratory conditions, with approximately 3 million new cases reported annually. Due to the lack of effective clinical interventions, the mortality rate can exceed 40%, making these conditions urgent clinical challenges.
Researchers analyzed the microbiome in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from ALI/ARDS mouse models. They found an increased total bacterial load in BALF, which closely resembled the microbiome of intact lung tissue. Using methods such as 16S rRNA sequencing, sufficient data were obtained for comprehensive research. Moreover, Actinobacteria in BALF were identified as a potential key microbiota linking the "gut-lung axis" and could serve as indicators of the severity of lung injury.
This study is the first to demonstrate that BALF from ALI/ARDS mouse models, along with intact lung tissue, can serve as robust samples for lung microbiome research. This provides a scientific basis for integrating clinical and animal model data on ALI/ARDS. The study also represents the latest findings on the regulation of the "gut-lung axis" in ALI/ARDS by the research team, following their previous publication in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology(DOI:10.1165/rcmb.2021-0515OC).
Full Article link: https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-024-01772-6
