REVIEW
Lower Respiratory Tract Microbiome
 
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1
Center for Respiratory Failure, Thoracic Diseases General Hospital “Sotiria”, Athens
 
2
Bioanalytica-Genotype SA, Athens, Greece
 
 
Corresponding author
Aliki Korkontzelou   

Center for Respiratory Failure, “Sotiria” General Hospital for Chest Diseases, 152 Mesogeion Av., 11527 Athens, Greece
 
 
Pneumon 2017;30(3):165-174
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Given the fact that the hypothesis of respiratory microbe sterility is being degraded, researchers are currently studying healthy lung microbiota homeostasis as well as its disturbance in case of illness. Taking into consideration the thorough understanding of diseases that gut microbiota studies offered, one cannot but anticipate that respiratory microbiome research would reveal further insight to the pathogenesis of lung disorders but mostly to healthy respiratory physiology. In this article, we review published studies with a view to summarizing important terms and definitions in human microbiome studies, obstacles in lung microbiota research, microbial diversity of lower respiratory tract in health state and major lung diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, interstitial lung disease (ILD), lung cancer and cystic fibrosis.
 
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