The airway microbiota in siblings with primary ciliary dyskinesia: Related factors and correlation with clinical characteristics

Objectives-Aim: We aimed to show the composition and structure of and explore affecting factors on airway microbiota in primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) patients using culture-independent techniques.Method: A cross-sectional observational study was performed. We recruited 14 PCD patients (seven pairs of siblings) and nine parents. Bacterial rDNA was extracted from sputum and nasal samples. Sputum samples were also inoculated on suitable bacteriological media.Results: Thirty-three separate genera were detected in sputum samples of PCD patients, and 41 were in nasal samples of parents. The detected genera were dominated by phyla Proteobacteria in PCD patients and their parents. Culture-dependent analyses could not detect many of the bacterial species detected with culture-independent analyses. There were no significant differences in alpha diversity between the siblings' pairs, and siblings' samples did not cluster together nearly as strongly as nonsiblings' samples. Patients who had no new complaints and no bacterial growth with the culture-dependent method at the time of study and patients who had no Haemophilus influenzae growth in the previous year had a significantly greater diversity (p < .05). Microbiota communities tended to cluster together by age, pulmonary exacerbation status, the existence of at least one H. influenzae growth with culture-dependent analyses in the previous year, and forced expiratory volume in 1 sec z and FEF25-75 z-scores.Conclusion: The airway microbiota of patients with PCD have presented more diverse bacterial communities than had been indicated with culture-dependent methods. The study identifies relationships between bacterial airway microbiota composition and the clinical measures of patients. Sibling pairs have no more community similarities than nonsibling PCD patients. Our results may indicate that the patients' clinical characteristics, which determine the disease severity, might affect the PCD microbiome.