Abstract
Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a chronic, female-prone, multifactorial bladder disorder characterized by symptoms such as suprapubic pain, urinary urgency, frequency, and pelvic discomfort, often exacerbated by bladder filling and associated with urothelial dysfunction and inflammation, while the etiology of IC/BPS remains largely unknown. This study was conducted by performing 2bRAD sequencing for Microbiome (2bRAD-M) on bladder tissue samples to investigate the microbial community distribution characteristics of bladder tissues in patients with IC/BPS. The study recruited a total of 11 patients with IC/BPS. The lesion and surrounding normal tissue were collected from each patient. DNA was extracted, and the genomes of various microorganisms in the tissue were digested using IIB restriction endonucleases. The unique tags were subjected to microbial qualitative and relative quantitative analysis. A total of 118 bacteria and 2 fungi were detected in 22 samples from 11 patients diagnosed with IC/BPS. Microbial diversity was similar in bladder lesion tissue and surrounding normal tissue. The microbial composition of the bladder tissues was similar, with 3 microorganisms, namely Mycobacterium_tuberculosis, Ralstonia_sp000620465 and Klebsiella_pneumoniae, detected in all tissues. At the species level, Escherichia_coli, Bacillus_A_bombysepticus and Chlamydophila_abortus were the dominant species. 2 microorganisms (Sphingopyxis and Rhizobiaceae) were enriched in the lesion tissue, while Acetobacteraceae and Porphyromonas were enriched in the normal tissue from patients with IC/BPS. This study preliminarily depicted the microbial panorama of bladder tissues from IC/BPS patients using the 2bRAD-M technique, revealing the distribution of microorganisms associated with the disease and possible differences, providing new perspectives and research directions for subsequent studies on the pathogenesis and progression of IC/BPS.
Data availability
The data repository website was https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/PRJNA1310667?reviewer=71l0ns2aldhgrcq2f0g6lgkve8 and the accession number was PRJNA1310667.
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Funding
This research is supported by grants from the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (No.7244419) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82103239).
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Ying Gan, Jingjun Zhang and Yang Yang performed sample preparation, DNA extraction, data analysis and the paper writing. Kaifeng Yao, Rui Jiang, Zheng Li collected tissue samples. Yang Yang was responsible for the study design and supervision. Yang Yang and Ying Gan provided financial support for the project. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
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Gan, Y., Zhang, J., Yao, K. et al. The microbiome of interstitial cystitis revealed by 2bRAD-M. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-42249-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-42249-w
