RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Sputum microbiota in Chinese adults with eosinophilic versus non-eosinophilic asthma JF European Respiratory Journal JO Eur Respir J FD European Respiratory Society SP PA1073 DO 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.PA1073 VO 46 IS suppl 59 A1 Qingling Zhang A1 Rihuang Qiu A1 Naijian Li A1 Zhaowei Yang A1 Yongfeng Liu A1 Jing Li A1 Kian Fan Chung A1 Nanshan Zhong YR 2015 UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA1073.abstract AB Rationale: Altered composition of airway microbiota has been reported in asthma.We examined airway microbiota amongst Chinese adult patients.Methods: Induced sputum was obtained from 49 non-smoking stable asthma patients and 15 healthy subjects. Total DNA was amplified by using primers specific for the V3-V5 hypervariable region of bacterial 16s rRNA. Samples were sequenced with the 454 GS FLX sequencer. Sequences were assigned to bacterial taxa by comparing them with 16s rRNA sequences in the Ribosomal Database Project.Results: Asthmatics had lower FEV1% predicted (72.2 vs. 98.6, p<0.001) and higher sputum eosinophil (13.0% vs. 0.5%, p<0.001) compared to healthy controls. At phylum level, the difference of OTU relative abundance remained non-significant. Subjects with eosinopihilic asthma (EA) are older and have shorter duration of asthma (9.6 vs. 19.2 years, p=0.041) as well as lower FEV1% (69.3% vs. 79.2%, p<0.001) compared to subjects with non-eosinopihilic asthma (NEA). The highest OTU numbers (183.9 vs. 142.7 vs. 127.2) and diversity scores were found in NEA group, followed by healthy and EA group. At phylum level, EA subjects had higher abundance of Firmicutes (33.7% vs. 27.5%, p=0.099) but lower Proteobacteria (27.5% vs. 35.2%, p=0.090) compared to NEA subjects. Conclusions: Patients with eosinophilic asthma have an altered microbial composition in the airways compared with subjects with non-eosinophilic asthma.