Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2021; 27(19): 2376-2393
Published online May 21, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i19.2376
Effects of sepsis and its treatment measures on intestinal flora structure in critical care patients
Xiao-Juan Yang, Dan Liu, Hong-Yan Ren, Xiao-Ya Zhang, Jun Zhang, Xiao-Jun Yang
Xiao-Juan Yang, Xiao-Ya Zhang, Jun Zhang, Xiao-Jun Yang, Department of Critical Care Medicine, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China
Dan Liu, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, Hubei Province, China
Hong-Yan Ren, Shanghai Mobio Biomedical Technology Co., Shanghai 201318, China
Author contributions: Yang XJ was the guarantor and designed the study; Yang XJ participated in the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and drafted the initial manuscript; Liu D, Zhang XY, Ren HY, and Zhang J revised the article critically for important intellectual content.
Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, No. 2016YFD0400605.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University (Ethical Approval No. 2016-258).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all patients or their immediate family members.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Yang XJ reports grants from Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, during the conduct of the study. Other authors have nothing to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiao-Jun Yang, MM, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Critical Care Medicine, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, No. 804 Shengli South Street, Xingqing District, Yinchuan 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. yxjicu@163.com
Received: January 16, 2021
Peer-review started: January 16, 2021
First decision: February 10, 2021
Revised: February 23, 2021
Accepted: April 22, 2021
Article in press: April 22, 2021
Published online: May 21, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: As the largest reservoir of bacteria and endotoxins in the body, the intestinal tract is regarded as the “engine” of sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction. Through 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we observed that intestinal flora disturbance occurs in sepsis patients. Notably, here, we revealed for the first time the intestinal flora dynamic changes in sepsis patients during treatment. We found that the abundance of some intestinal bacteria in sepsis patients significantly correlated with infection- and intestinal barrier-related clinical indicators. These findings add to the understanding of the intestinal flora in sepsis, providing a basis for the reversal of dysbiosis.