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Bacterial pathogenesis

Gut bugs in the lung link sepsis to ARDS

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 14, page 546 (2016)Cite this article

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The gut microbiota has long been known to be fundamental to the aetiology of sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); however, the mechanistic role of the gut microbiota in lung pathology has remained unknown. Now, Dickson et al. report that the lung microbiota in both sepsis and ARDS is enriched for bacteria that are usually found in the lower gastrointestinal tract. Sequencing 16S rRNA from established mouse models of sepsis and fluid from the lungs of individuals with ARDS enabled the identification of these gut bacteria, which are not detectable by conventional culturing techniques. The authors also observed that the abundance of gut bacteria in the human ARDS samples was correlated with disease severity. These findings indicate that gut–lung bacterial translocation might provide a common mechanism for the development of sepsis and ARDS.

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References

  1. Dickson, R. P. et al. Enrichment of the lung microbiome with gut bacteria in sepsis and the acute respiratory distress syndrome. Nat. Microbiol. 1, 16113 (2016)

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  1. Naomi Attar
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Attar, N. Gut bugs in the lung link sepsis to ARDS. Nat Rev Microbiol 14, 546 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2016.119

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