Altered microbiota composition or dysbiosis is suspected to be implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as spondyloarthritis (SpA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing was performed on faecal DNA isolated from stool samples in two consecutive cross-sectional cohorts, each comprising three groups of adult volunteers: SpA, RA and healthy controls (HCs). In the second study, HCs comprised a majority of aged-matched siblings of patients with known HLA-B27 status. Alpha and beta diversities were assessed using QIIME, and comparisons were performed using linear discriminant analysis effect size to examine differences between groups.
In both cohorts, dysbiosis was evidenced in SpA and RA, as compared with HCs, and was disease specific. A restriction of microbiota biodiversity was detected in both disease groups. The most striking change was a twofold to threefold increased abundance of 
Our results suggest that distinctive dysbiosis characterise both SpA and RA and evidence a reproducible increase in 