The rheumatoid arthritis gut microbial biobank reveals core microbial species that associate and effect on host inflammation and autoimmune responses.

Gut microbiota dysbiosis has been implicated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and influences disease progression. Although molecular and culture-independent studies revealed RA patients harbored a core microbiome and had characteristic bacterial species, the lack of cultured bacterial strains had limited investigations on their functions. This study aimed to establish an RA-originated gut microbial biobank (RAGMB) that covers and further to correlates and validates core microbial species on clinically used and diagnostic inflammation and immune indices.

Christensenella strain resources, genomic/metabolomic profiling, and association with host at species level.

The gut commensal bacteria species are negatively associated with many metabolic diseases, and have been seen as promising next-generation probiotics. However, the cultured strain resources were limited, and their beneficial mechanisms for improving metabolic diseases have yet to be explored. In this study, we developed a method that enabled the enrichment and cultivation of strains from fecal samples.