Upper and lower airway microbiota across infancy and childhood
The airway microbiota in childhood plays important roles in respiratory health and immune development. In this work, we report on paired nasopharyngeal swab and tracheal aspirate samples from a cross-sectional cohort of children from infancy to 18 years. We find that the upper and lower airway microbiota are unlikely to share taxa and do not correlate in terms of diversity. We show that the composition of the upper airway microbiota is strongly correlated with age, with a stereotypic developmental trajectory during childhood and adolescence. Our results inform our understanding of airway microbiota assembly and may be used to predict airway disease in young children.
Authors
- Lisa R. Young (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3297-8532)
- Elikplim H. Akaho
- Audrey R. Odom John (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8395-8537)
- Samantha A. Whiteside (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0088-3101)
- W Otto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7959-1445)
- Ariel Hernandez-Leyva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2427-3727)
- Allison M. Blatz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2525-1212)
- Anne Rosén (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7656-3382)
- Joey Logan
- Elaina E. Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4451-8448)
- Rebecca M. Harris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1944-3747)
- Christopher P. Tomera
- Andrew L. Kau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9386-3766)
Institutions
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Pediatric Research
- Published
- 2025-03-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-03942-0
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Gut microbiota and health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.84
Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development