Characterization of the intestinal microbiome of Hirschsprung’s disease with and without enterocolitis

Hirschsprung’s disease (HD) is a congenital malformation of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by the absence of the distal enteric nervous system. Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis (HAEC) is severe life threatening complication of HD. The disease pathogenesis is still unclear, but evidences suggest that the intestinal microbiota may play important role in the development of HD and HAEC. Because microbial abundance and diversity might differ in HD patients with enterocolitis, we sought to generate comparative metagenomic signatures to characterize the structure of the microbiome in HD patients with and without enterocolitis. Our experimental design is to enroll four HD patients (two with enterocolitis and two without enterocolitis). The microbiome was characterized by 16S rRNA gene, and the data obtained will be used to taxonomically classify and compare community structure among different samples. We found that the structure of the microbiome within HAEC patients are differ from those without enterocolitis. This study helps us to understand microbial contributions to the etiology of Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis.