Investigation of Co-existing Bacteria in Platelets by Employing Long-Term Culturomics and Metagenomics

Qiqi Wang¹Mengyi Zhao¹Anqing Liu²Yuwei Zhao³Zhenxin Fan⁴Yang Huang¹Zhan Gao¹Miao He^1*

• ¹Institute of Blood Transfusion, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Chengdu, China
• ²Chengdu Fifth People's Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
• ³Chengdu Blood Center, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
• ⁴Key Laboratory of Bio resource and Eco-environment, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

Bacterial contamination of platelets presents a substantial risk in transfusion medicine. Conventional detection approaches have limitations in sensitivity and bacterial coverage. In this study we employed culturomics and metagenomics to investigate co-existent bacteria in platelets, aiming to enhance transfusion safety and explore healthy bacteremia. Platelet from 6 healthy donors underwent a 30-days extensive cultivation and isolation procedure using in-house culturomics. 16S rRNA sequencing identified 90 bacterial strains across 3 phyla, 5 classes, 5 orders, 7 families, 9 genera, and 23 species. Metagenomics sequencing revealed greater microbial diversity, detecting an average of 3018 microbial species per sample. The bacteria concurrently detected by both culturomics and metagenomics included species from Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria. This combined approach validates the presence of bacteria in platelets, likely originating from the skin, gut, oral cavity, environment, or bloodstream, providing a comprehensive strategy for bacterial identification in transfusion products.