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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1499813

Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients Are At An Increased Risk For Dysbiosis

Provisionally accepted
Gizem Yılmaz Gizem Yılmaz 1Seha Kamil Saygili Seha Kamil Saygili 2Ayse Agbas Ayse Agbas 2Esra Karabag Yılmaz Esra Karabag Yılmaz 2Ahmet Varis Ahmet Varis 3Nur Canpolat Nur Canpolat 2*
  • 1 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 2 Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 3 Diagen Biotechnology, Ankara, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduc8on: This study aimed to compare the gut microbiota composi9on in pediatric kidney transplant (KTx) recipient with that of healthy children. Methods: This cross-sec9onal observa9onal study included 30 pediatric KTx recipients aged between 7 and 21 years and 25 healthy children. The gut microbiota was assessed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, with alpha and beta diversity, as well as all sta9s9cal analyses, conducted using the Phyloseq library in the R programming language. Taxonomic profiles were evaluated with QIIME2, and differences in gut microbiota profiles were compared using linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEFSe) with an LDA threshold of >2 and p <0.05. Results: No significant differences were found in alpha and beta diversity between the KTx recipients and healthy controls. However, KTx recipients exhibited significant altera9ons in microbiota composi9on, including higher rela9ve abundances of Verrucomicrobiota at the phylum level, and Akkermansia and Neisseria at the genus level (p <0.05 for all). Conversely, there was a decrease in bacterial genera belonging to the phylum Firmicutes. In addi9on, KTx recipients with a history of frequent urinary tract infec9ons, diarrhea and reduced GFR showed significant increases in bacterial abundance (p < 0.05 for all). Discussion: Pediatric KTx recipients demonstrated significant alterarions in gut microbiota composi9on, indica9ng dysbiosis. Further studies are needed to elucidate the cause-andeffect rela9onships of these changes and their impact on clinical consequencies and longterm prognosis.

    Keywords: Children, Dysbiosis, gut, intestine, Kidney Transplantation, microbiota

    Received: 24 Sep 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yılmaz, Saygili, Agbas, Karabag Yılmaz, Varis and Canpolat. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nur Canpolat, Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Türkiye

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.