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MILITARY
MEDICINE
Microbiomes and Traumatic Brain Injury
By Susannah Nicholson, MD, MS
Trauma is a major understudied health problem in the United matic injury and TBI and its relationship to inflammation and clin-
States, yet it remains the leading cause of death in people under the ical outcome. The objective of these studies is to better understand
age of 40. A wide range of post-injury complications can develop the role of the gut microbiome in patients following traumatic injury
that contribute to the associated high morbidity and mortality. Pa- and TBI and lead to the development of a clinical strategy to manage
tients may survive the initial insult but die later during their hospi- complex trauma patients to reduce morbidity and mortality. Our
talization from inflammatory and infectious complications. work utilizes innovative techniques in metagenomic sequencing to
facilitate a greater understanding of the complexity of the environ-
The microbiome is defined as the collective genomes of the mi- ment within the gut following trauma.
crobes that live inside and on the human body. Recently, disruption
of the gut microbiome has been linked to cardiovascular disease, in- Dr. Susannah Nicholson is a trauma surgeon and
flammatory bowel disease, obesity, and a number of other disease Assistant Professor at UT Health San Antonio, Depart-
states. Despite efforts focusing on the role of commensals in human ment of Surgery, Division of Trauma and Emergency
health and disease, data is sparse concerning the interactions of the Surgery and serves as the Director of Trauma Research
microbiome in trauma and traumatic brain injury (TBI). for the Division of Trauma and Emergency Surgery. Dr.
Lora Talley Watts is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Cell
Our group has conducted pre-clinical and clinical research, Systems & Anatomy and Neurology and the Research Imaging Institute.
through the support of the UT Health San Antonio Military Health
Institute, evaluating the role of the gut microbiome following trau-
30 San Antonio Medicine • August 2017
