Status of intestinal microbiota in liquidators of the Chernobyl accident aftermath

Results of mass spectrometry analysis of microbial markers in whole blood of 129 liquidators of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are presented to study the wall (blood samples) and luminal (feces) intestinal microbiota. The method provides a new version of molecular microbiological study due to possible simultaneous quantitative determination of more than hundreds of microbial markers directly in biological samples without culturing the microorganisms, biochemical test materials or genetic primers. The study of blood and feces microbiota via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of microbial markers suggests that examined liquidators of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station have expressed intestinal dysbiosis: the total number of microbial markers are increased in the blood and decreased in the feces; in blood, the microbial markers of Propionibacterium / Clostridium subterminale are two-fold increased with decreased Lactobacillus markers, and in feces microbial markers Eubacterium / Clostridium coccoides are increased with decreased Lactobacillus markers; increased microbial markers of opportunistic microbiota in blood and feces). These individual profiles of microbiome served as the basis for targeted correction.

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