Swabs for stool sampling
Investigating the gut microbiome and metabolome often requires faecal or biopsy samples which can be difficult to obtain. Existing literature has shown good correlation between rectal swabs and faecal samples for analysing gut microbiota composition and certain key metabolites. In this study we compared 3D printed rectal swabs with conventional flocked swabs and faecal samples, due to the potential advantages 3D printing as a technique offers for swab production and development. 16Ss rRNA gene sequencing and qPCR, as well as 1H-NMR was performed on swab and faecal samples from healthy participants. Faecal calprotectin and total protein analysis were performed on samples from IBD patients.  There were no significant differences between both swab types and faecal samples when assessing key measures of alpha and beta diversity, and there were no differences in the abundance of major phyla. There was good correlation between both swab types and faecal samples for all combined metabolites detected by NMR. In IBD patients there was no significant difference in faecal calprotectin and total protein levels between both swab types and faecal samples. Overall, these data suggest that 3D printed swabs are equivalent to existing flocked swabs for the analysis of the gut microbiome, metabolome and inflammation.