The Impact of Air Pollution on Intestinal Microbiome of Asthmatic Children: A Panel Study

Background Intestinal microbiome can influence human health. Previous researches showed that the intestinal microbiome played an important role in immune responses associated with allergic disease. Colonization of intestinal microorganisms in the early life could affect future susceptibility to asthma. In China the incidence of childhood asthma raised sharply in recent years and the air pollution was serious in the meantime. Based on the above theories and conditions, the main objective of this article was to explore the impact of air pollution on intestinal microbiome of asthmatic children preliminary. Results A total of 42 fecal samples from 21 children, among whom 11 children with asthma and 10 children without asthma, were collected twice in a clean day and a polluted day respectively. Identifying the bacteria in gut by the method of high throughput sequencing for 16SrRNA gene. The results showed that Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the dominant phyla in all children. Proteobacteria (p=0.020) increased significantly and Bacteroidetes (p=0.072) decreased marginally significantly in asthmatic children compared with healthy children. Bacteroidetes (p=0.067) showed marginally significant increasing and Actinobacteria (p=0.001) showed significant decline in asthmatic children after air pollution. The variations of Firmicutes (p=0.106) and Proteobacteria (p=0.064) were marginally significant in healthy children after air pollution. Analyzed by multiple linear regression, the relative abundance of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes at phylum level, Bacteroidia at class level, Clostridium_sensu_ stricto_1 and Terrisporobacter at genus level significantly correlated with environmental pollutants (p<0.05), including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2 and O3. Conclusion Composition of intestinal microbiome in asthmatic children were different from healthy children significantly, and air pollution could impact on intestinal microbiome both in asthmatic and healthy children.