Lung Allograft Dysfunction: Does Aspiration Hold the Key?

McGinniss and colleagues present the first report on the lung microbiome in primary graft malfunction in this edition of the journal.. Their single-center prospective cohort research of the lung microbiota evaluates donor lungs both before and right after implantation and reperfusion ("donor lung") ("recipient allograft"). BAL samples were taken at both time points to study the lung microbiota. They recruited 139 transplant recipients for their study, collecting samples of recipient allograft from 136 subjects and donor lung from 109 subjects. After quality control filtering, 67 of the 139 individuals had paired donor lung and recipient allograft samples available. To identify alterations in the lung microbiome related to the transplant operation, paired samples were examined.