Fig. 4.

Increased T cell activation is associated with alterations to microbial communities. Both the levels of CD4 and CD8 T cell activation were higher in the survivors than in controls (a, b). Relative abundances of specific taxa identified from LEfSe analysis were associated with %HLA-DR+ CD4 and CD8 T cells respectively (c, d). Relative abundance of genus Finegoldia was positively correlated with %HLA-DR+ CD8 T cells among the survivors, while the same association was not observed in the control group (e). In contrast, relative abundance of phylum Actinobacteria was positively correlated with %HLA-DR+ CD4 T cells among the controls, while the same association was not observed in the survivor group (f). Data shown as median ± interquartile range and p values was calculated with Mann-Whitney test for group comparison. Data shown as correlation coefficient (ρ) and confounders-adjusted p value calculated with Spearman rank partial correlation test adjusted for age, gender and BMI for the correlation between taxa and immune markers. Linear regression line was fitted for visualization purposes only. Red circles denote the survivors, while blue squares denote the controls. p_ = phylum; g_ = genus