A Pilot Correlation Study of Gut Microbiome between Children with Henoch-Schönlein Purpura and their Mothers

Background: Vertical microbiome transmission from mothers plays an important role inchildren with the establishment and development of gutmicrobiome.Our previous study has found that gut microbiota dysbiosis is associated with Henoch-Schönleinpurpura(HSP) in children,while it is unclear whether there is a correlation between the gut microbiome of the HSP children and their mothers. Methods: : In this study, 50HSP child-mother pairs and 61 matched healthy child-mother pairs were enrolled and examined.Stool samples were collected for DNA extraction and 16S rRNA genesequencing, followed by analyses of the gut microbiota composition. Results: : Significant differences were observed in the gut microbiome composition between HSP children and healthy children. Several unique biomarkers, such as Enterococcus , Fusobacterium , Veillonella and Streptococcus were identified. A significant increase of the relative abundance of Prevotella and Megamonas were observed in HSP’s mothers (HSP-M) compared with mothers of the healthy children (H-M). HSP children’s gut microbiome is closely associated with that of their mothers, and the taxon of Acidaminococcus and Roseburia were onlyfound in the gut microbiome of HSP children and their mothers (HSP-M+C). Conclusions: : Our preliminary study revealed that the gut microbiome of HSP children are closely associated with that of their mothers, although children with HSP still possess unique bacterial biomarkers. Dysbiosis of the maternal gut microbiota may play a critical role in increasing the risk of HSP in children, which deserve further longitudinalinvestigations to uncover its mechanisms.