Role of Microbiome in Lung Injury

Abstract

Abstract Microbiome analysis based on 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequencing has identified unique microbiota in microenvironments previously considered sterile, such as the placenta and lung, and suggests that the lung microbiome may be established before birth. The microbiome established early in life may affect the development of chronic lung disease such as asthma later in life. Recent studies of preterm infants suggest that the airway microbiome in infants in whom bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) develops differs in composition and is less diverse compared with term and preterm infants without BPD. The role of the genital mycoplasmas Ureaplasma parvum and Ureaplasma urealyticum alone and as part of a polymicrobial infection in preterm birth, neonatal lung injury, and host immune responses is reviewed.