Composition and Comparison of the Ocular Surface Microbiome in Infants and Older Children

Purpose Unlike other microbiomes of the body, the composition of the ocular surface microbiome (OSM) in children has yet to be thoroughly explored. Our goal was to evaluate the OSM in young infants and compare its composition to older children using both culture dependent and independent methodologies to assess for differences with age. Methods Prospective, observational, cross-sectional study of children 1 species. Culture positive patients were older (43 vs. 29 months, P = 0.19). Additionally, older children had greater diversity than children under 6 months of age by 16S sequencing (P = 0.05). Staphylococcus species were predominant by culture (35/52 isolates) and by 16S sequencing. The OSM was fairly similar to the nose microbiome, whereas the throat microbiome differed significantly and had a higher abundance of Streptococcaceae (P = 0.001). Conclusions The OSM is predominantly composed of Staphylococcus species in children, as demonstrated by both culture dependent and culture independent methods. Older children were more likely to have growth on culture and have more a complex bacterial milieu with 16S sequencing. Translational Relevance 16S sequencing provides more robust information regarding the composition of the microbiomes than culture dependent methods.