Preliminary study of gut microbiota changes before and after kidney transplantation based on 16S rDNA high-flux sequencing

Objective To investigate the changes of intestinal microflora before and after kidney transplantation. Methods According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 7 patients who had undergone kidney transplantation in the 309th Hospital of PLA were selected as study subjects. A total of 14 stool specimens were collected within 3 days before and 21 days after the operation. Prokaryotic genome was analyzed by 16S rDNA high-flux sequencing after extraction from specimens. Results In the classification level of Phylum, Proteobacteria relative abundance increased significantly (P 0.05) after operation as compared with preoperation. In the classification level of class, order, family and genus, the relative abundance of Bacillus (P 0.05, Wilcoxon rank sum test). The principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) showed that the distance among the specimens in the preoperative group was shorter than that in the postoperative group, and the specimens in postoperative group were scattered in the coordinates. Conclusion The changes of gut microbiota after kidney transplantation mainly includes reduced diversity, increased relative abundance of Proteobacteria, and decreased relative abundance of Firmicutes. Because of high degree of individual variation in gut microbiota, it is unlikely that a specific bacterial category could be used as a diagnostic marker for complications after transplantation. However, in the vertical view, the pattern of changes in intestinal flora in each transplant patient may predict the health or disease status after transplantation, and even guide the treatment strategy. Key words: Gut microbiota; Kidney transplantation; 16S rDNA