Analysis of the Conjunctival Microbiome in Patients with Atopic Keratoconjunctivitis and Healthy Individuals

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis (AD) has been clarified that imbalance of bacterial and fungal communities in the skin and gut play key roles in immunologic dysfunction. Atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC), one of severe ophthalmic manifestation of AD, could be related with dysbiosis as same as AD. OBJECTIVE: In this case-control study, the roles of conjunctival microbial communities in AKC were evaluated by a comparative analysis with healthy controls (HCs). METHODS: 16S rRNA sequencing was used to construct libraries of compositional information for a total of 30 volunteers including 20 patients with AKC and 10 HCs. RESULTS: In the results, variation in the conjunctival taxonomic composition was higher in patients with AKC than in the HC group. In an analysis of relative abundance at the genus level, some taxa significantly differed between groups, including Ralstonia, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Proteus, Haemophilus, and Bifidobacterium (p<0.05). Beta diversity was significantly higher in patients with AKC than in HCs (PERMANOVA, p=0.004). CONCLUSION: The results indicated that the diversity and composition of the microbiome differs between patients with AKC and HCs.