TY - JOUR T1 - Influence of biofim on the bronchial microbiome in COPD patients colonized or infected by <em>pseudomonas aeruginosa</em> JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.PA5028 VL - 46 IS - suppl 59 SP - PA5028 AU - Marian Garcia-Nuñez AU - Sara Marti AU - Carmen Puig AU - Vicente Perez-Brocal AU - Laura Millares AU - Fina Liñares AU - Eduard Monso Y1 - 2015/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA5028.abstract N2 - The recovery of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from respiratory samples of COPD patients has been associated with impaired lung function and recurrent exacerbations, partly due to strain-dependent factors such as biofilm formation.Aims: To analyse the bronchial microbiome of COPD patients with positive cultures for P.aeruginosa associated with either colonization or infection, and differentiated according to biofilm production, both in stability and exacerbation.Methods: Sputum samples with positive cultures for P.aeruginosa were obtained from 21 COPD patients during stability (n=18) and exacerbation (n=23), and analysed by 16S rRNA gene amplification and pyrosequencing. Biofilm-forming capacity of P. aeruginosa was examined using crystal violet in a static microtiter plate assay. Sputum samples were classified according to the biofilm-forming capacity of P.aeruginosa (low/high), assessing the differences between both groups, both in stability and exacerbation.RESULTS:No significant differences in biodiversity parameters (Shannon and Chao1) were found between low and high biofilm-forming groups. However, the bronchial microbiome of the high biofilm-forming group showed higher relative abundance of bacterial Operational Taxonomic Units (12 and 9 OTUs during stability and exacerbation, respectively), and represented up to 10% of the relative abundance in the sample.Conclusions: In COPD patients colonized or infected by P. aeruginosa, biofilm production was associated with an overgrowth of some bacterial OTUs, which attained a relative abundance of up to 10%. Accordingly, a biofilm environment undermined a change in the bronchial microbiome identifiable through 16srRNA analyses. ER -