Background: The microbiomes of humans are associated with liver and lung inflammation. We identified and\nverified alterations of the oropharyngeal microbiome and assessed their association with cirrhosis and pneumonia.\nMethods: Study components were as follows: (1) determination of the temporal stability of the oropharyngeal\nmicrobiome; (2) identification of oropharyngeal microbial variation in 90 subjects; (3) quantitative identification of\ndisease-associated bacteria. DNAs enriched in bacterial sequences were produced from low-biomass oropharyngeal\nswabs using whole genome amplification and were analyzed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis.\nResults: Whole genome amplification combined with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis monitored\nsuccessfully oropharyngeal microbial variations and showed that the composition of each subject�s oropharyngeal\nmicrobiome remained relatively stable during the follow-up. The microbial composition of cirrhotic patients with\npneumonia differed from those of others and clustered together in subgroup analysis. Further, species richness and\nthe value of Shannon�s diversity and evenness index increased significantly in patients with cirrhosis and pneumonia\nversus others (p < 0.001, versus healthy controls; p < 0.01, versus cirrhotic patients without pneumonia). Moreover,\nwe identified variants of Bacteroides, Eubacterium, Lachnospiraceae, Neisseria, Actinomyces, and Streptococcus through\nphylogenetic analysis. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays revealed that the populations of Bacteroides,\nNeisseria, and Actinomycetes increased, while that of Streptococcus decreased in cirrhotic patients with pneumonia\nversus others (p < 0.001, versus Healthy controls; p < 0.01, versus cirrhotic patients without pneumonia).\nConclusions: Alterations of Bacteroides, Neisseria, Actinomyces, and Streptococcus populations in the oropharyngeal\nmicrobiome were associated with liver cirrhosis and pneumonia.
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