AUTHOR=D’Alessandro-Gabazza Corina N. , Méndez-García Celia , Hataji Osamu , Westergaard Sara , Watanabe Fumiaki , Yasuma Taro , Toda Masaaki , Fujimoto Hajime , Nishihama Kota , Fujiwara Kentaro , Taguchi Osamu , Kobayashi Tetsu , Mackie Roderick I. , Cann Isaac , Gabazza Esteban C. TITLE=Identification of Halophilic Microbes in Lung Fibrotic Tissue by Oligotyping JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=9 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01892 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2018.01892 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an incurable disease with poor prognosis and unknown etiology. The poor clinical outcome is associated with enhanced microbial burden in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from IPF patients. However, whether microbes from the respiratory tract fluid cause the disease remains uncertain. Tissue-associated microbes can influence host physiology in health and disease development. The aim of this study was to evaluate the existence of microbes in lung fibrotic tissues. We evaluated the microbial community in lung tissues from IPF and from human transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) transgenic mice with lung fibrosis by oligotyping. We also evaluated the microbial population in non-tumor-bearing tissues from surgical specimens of lung cancer patients. The phyla Firmicutes and the genus Clostridium tended to be predominant in the lung tissue from IPF and lung cancer patients. Oligotyping analysis revealed a predominance of bacteria belonging to the genera Halomonas, Shewanella, Christensenella, and Clostridium in lung tissue from IPF and lung cancer. Evaluation of the microbial community in the lung tissue from mice revealed abundance of Proteobacteria in both wild-type (WT) littermates and transgenic mice. However, the genus Halomonas tended to be more abundant in TGF-β1 transgenic mice compared to WT mice. In conclusion, this study describes tissue-associated microbes in lung fibrotic tissues from IPF patients and from aging TGF-β1 transgenic mice.