Abstract:Objective To investigate the effects of glucocorticoids(GC) on the structure and diversity of intestinal flora in children with Henoch Schonlein purpura (HSP). Methods The stool samples of 60 HSP children from Sptember 2017 to March 2019 were collected and divided into GC group and non-GC group according to whether the children were treated with GC or not (n=30,each).The stool samples of 21 healthy children were taken as the control group.DNA extraction from samples was sequenced by Illumina HiSeq high-throughput sequencing platform,and the biological information analysis and statistical processing were performed on the sequenced data. Results The species abundance and diversity analysis based on the operational taxonomy unit (OTU) showed that the OTU number,species abundance estimation parameter CHAO1 and diversity Shannon index in GC group and non-GC group were significantly lower than those in control group(all P<0.01),while the diversity Simpson index was significantly higher than that in control group(P<0.01). There were no statistical differences in OUT,species richness estimation parameter ACE,CHAO1,Shannon and Simpson indexes between GC group and non-GC group(all P>0.05).The structure of fecal flora in children with HSP was different from that in healthy children.At the level of "family" taxonomy,Enterococcaceae (42.0%,25.3%),Lachnospiraceae(11.1%,13.8%),Bifidobacteriaceae (10.1%,15.8%),Ruminococcaceae (7.7%,9.0%) had a higher abundance in GC group and non-GC group;while Lachnospiraceae(30.8%),Ruminococcaceae(24.6%),Bacteroideae (14.4%),and Bifidobacteriaceae (7.4%) had a higher abundance in control group. Conclusion The species abundance and diversity of intestinal flora in HSP children are lower than those in healthy children,and use of glucocorticoids may not be associated with the relative abundance and diversity of intestinal flora in HSP children.