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Abstract Summary Bronchial Asthma is a disease with multifactor etiology (Ito et al., 2006). It is defined by the global and initiative for asthma management and prevention GINA as chronic inflammatory disorder affecting the airways, in which many cells and cellular elements play a role. The chronic inflammation is associated with airway hyperresponsiveness that leads to recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness particularly at night or in the early morning (GINA, 2012). Numerous studies have addressed the composition of the microbiota in healthy and allergic subjects. Gut microbiota is an assortment of microorganisms inhabiting the length and width of mammalian GIT. It is estimated that human microbiota contains as many as 1014 bacterial cells, a number that is 10 times greater than the number of human cells present in our bodies. There are more than 3 millions of microbial genes in our gut microbiota, 150 times more than human genome (Duncan et al., 2007). Increasing interest in host-microbiota relationship and its effects on the immune system has led to studies investigating the role of the microbiome in susceptibility to diseases (Markle et al., 2013). According to Tanaka et al. studies suggested that perturbations in the gastrointestinal microbiota as a result of change in diet and antibiotic use result in underdeveloped microbiota. This immature microbiota delays proper maturation of the immune system, disrupting the normal sequence of events that promote the development of immunological tolerance increasing the incidence of allergic hypersensitivity (Tanaka et al., 2009). Aim of work was to study the variability of gut microbiota in healthy and asthmatic patients and investigate its diversity according to gender. This study was a case control study conducted on two groups 80 adult asthmatic patients and 40 healthy individuals. Each group was divided into further subgroups (females and males) to assess the variability of gut microbiota by conventional stool culture in relation to bronchial asthma. Data was collected regarding gender, age, clinical history and specific investigations as (skin test and pulmonary function testing). patient <18 years old, and >45 years old, patients with old history of active infectious conditions within the previous 30 days, autoimmune diseases, recent diarrhea or constipation, on prebiotics or probiotics, on corticosteroids for the past 6 weeks, on immunotherapy or on regular diet free of any fermented milk products for the last month, obese patients and consumption of antibiotics within 30 days prior to sample collection were excluded. Results clearly showed that as regard age, duration of illness, skin test results and pulmonary function test results, no significant difference between males and females in atopic patients was found. As regards diversity of gut microbiota between the two studied groups results of conventional stool culture showed no statistical significant difference. When comparing between both groups lactobacilli was found more in male patients compared to healthy male group and it was of statistical significant value. There was no correlation between number of organisms and disease related parameters including age, duration of illness, number of allergens and pulmonary function test. To the best of our knowledge, no studies were found on microbiota diversity in adults patients The limitation of this study was that is was confined to specific population related to a certain environment. Also the studied group was done a small scale. Stool culture couldn‘t detect all required organisms |