Journal of Oral Microbiology (Dec 2023)

Changes in the oral and nasal microbiota in pediatric obstructive sleep apnea

  • Xiaoman Zhang,
  • Xinyi Li,
  • Huajun Xu,
  • Zhihui Fu,
  • Fan Wang,
  • Weijun Huang,
  • Kejia Wu,
  • Chenyang Li,
  • Yupu Liu,
  • Jianyin Zou,
  • Huaming Zhu,
  • Hongliang Yi,
  • Su Kaiming,
  • Meizhen Gu,
  • Jian Guan,
  • Shankai Yin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/20002297.2023.2182571
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1

Abstract

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ABSTRACTBackground Several clinical studies have demonstrated that pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with dysbiosis of airway mucosal microbiota. However, how oral and nasal microbial diversity, composition, and structure are altered in pediatric OSA has not been systemically explored.Methods 30 polysomnography-confirmed OSA patients with adenoid hypertrophy, and 30 controls who did not have adenoid hypertrophy, were enrolled. Swabs from four surface oral tissue sites (tongue base, soft palate, both palatine tonsils, and adenoid) and one nasal swab from both anterior nares were collected. The 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) V3–V4 region was sequenced to identify the microbial communities.Results The beta diversity and microbial profiles were significantly different between pediatric OSA patients and controls at the five upper airway sites. The abundances of Haemophilus, Fusobacterium, and Porphyromonas were higher at adenoid and tonsils sites of pediatric patients with OSA. Functional analysis revealed that the differential pathway between the pediatric OSA patients and controls involved glycerophospholipids and amino acid metabolism.Conclusions In this study, the oral and nasal microbiome of pediatric OSA patients exhibited certain differences in composition compared with the controls. However, the microbiota data could be useful as a reference for studies on the upper airway microbiome.

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