Gastrointestinal microbiota contributes to the development of murine transfusion-related acute lung injury.

Kapur R, Kim M, Rebetz J, Hallström B, Björkman JT, Takabe-French A, Kim N, Liu J, Shanmugabhavananthan S, Milosevic S, McVey MJ, Speck ER, Semple JW

Blood Adv 2 (13) 1651-1663 [2018-07-10; online 2018-07-12]

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is a syndrome of respiratory distress upon blood transfusion and is the leading cause of transfusion-related fatalities. Whether the gut microbiota plays any role in the development of TRALI is currently unknown. We observed that untreated barrier-free (BF) mice suffered from severe antibody-mediated acute lung injury, whereas the more sterile housed specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice and gut flora-depleted BF mice were both protected from lung injury. The prevention of TRALI in the SPF mice and gut flora-depleted BF mice was associated with decreased plasma macrophage inflammatory protein-2 levels as well as decreased pulmonary neutrophil accumulation. DNA sequencing of amplicons of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene revealed a varying gastrointestinal bacterial composition between BF and SPF mice. BF fecal matter transferred into SPF mice significantly restored TRALI susceptibility in SPF mice. These data reveal a link between the gut flora composition and the development of antibody-mediated TRALI in mice. Assessment of gut microbial composition may help in TRALI risk assessment before transfusion.

Clinical Genomics Lund [Service]

PubMed 29991496

DOI 10.1182/bloodadvances.2018018903

Crossref 10.1182/bloodadvances.2018018903

pii: bloodadvances.2018018903
pmc: PMC6039664