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3D printed rectal swabs for assessing the gut microbiome, metabolome and inflammation

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Title: 3D printed rectal swabs for assessing the gut microbiome, metabolome and inflammation
Authors: Perry, R
Mullish, BH
Alexander, JL
Shah, R
Danckert, N
Miguens Blanco, J
Roberts, L
Liu, Z
Chrysostomou, D
Radhakrishnan, S
Balarajah, S
Barry, R
Hicks, L
Williams, HRT
Marchesi, JR
Item Type: Journal Article
Abstract: Investigating the gut microbiome and metabolome frequently requires faecal samples, which can be difficult to obtain. Previous studies have shown that rectal swabs are comparable to faecal samples for analysing gut microbiota composition and key metabolites. In this study, 3D printed rectal swabs were compared with conventional flocked swabs and faecal samples, due to the potential advantages 3D printing as a technique offers for swab production and development. 16S rRNA gene sequencing, qPCR and metabolite profiling (using 1H-NMR spectroscopy) were performed on swab and faecal samples from healthy participants. Faecal calprotectin and total protein analysis were performed on samples from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. There were no significant differences between both swab types and faecal samples when assessing key measures of alpha and beta diversity, and differences in the abundance of major phyla. There was a strong correlation between both swab types and faecal samples for all combined metabolites detected by NMR. In IBD patients, there was no significant difference in faecal calprotectin and total protein levels between both swab types and faecal samples. These data lead us to conclude that 3D printed swabs are equivalent to flocked swabs for the analysis of the gut microbiome, metabolome and inflammation.
Issue Date: 18-Jul-2024
Date of Acceptance: 11-Jul-2024
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/113126
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-67457-0
ISSN: 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title: Scientific Reports
Volume: 14
Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2024 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Publication Status: Published
Article Number: 16613
Online Publication Date: 2024-07-18
Appears in Collections:Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction
Faculty of Medicine



This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons