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Rationale: The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening disease characterized by alveolar inflammation and edema leading to severe hypoxemia. Recent studies have shown that the lung microbiome is altered in humans and animals with ARDS. The temporal relationship between altered lung microbiota and the development of lung injury is unknown.
Methods: We used an established murine model of ARDS, intratracheal instillation of bleomycin in C57BL/6 mice. We sampled microbiota from lungs, tongues, and the lower gastrointestinal tract using a...