Gut microbiota development during infancy: Impact of introducing allergenic foods.
J Allergy Clin Immunol
; 147(2): 613-621.e9, 2021 02.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33551026
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The gut microbiota potentially plays an important role in the immunologic education of the host during early infancy.OBJECTIVE:
We sought to determine how the infant gut microbiota evolve during infancy, particularly in relation to hygiene-related environmental factors, atopic disorders, and a randomized introduction of allergenic solids.METHODS:
A total of 1303 exclusively breast-fed infants were enrolled in a dietary randomized controlled trial (Enquiring About Tolerance study) from 3 months of age. In this nested longitudinal study, fecal samples were collected at baseline, with additional sampling of selected cases and controls at 6 and 12 months to study the evolution of their gut microbiota, using 16S ribosomal RNA gene-targeted amplicon sequencing.RESULTS:
In the 288 baseline samples from exclusively breast-fed infant at 3 months, the gut microbiota was highly heterogeneous, forming 3 distinct clusters Bifidobacterium-rich, Bacteroides-rich, and Escherichia/Shigella-rich. Mode of delivery was the major discriminating factor. Increased Clostridium sensu stricto relative abundance at 3 months was associated with presence of atopic dermatitis on examination at age 3 and 12 months. From the selected cases and controls with longitudinal samples (n = 70), transition to Bacteroides-rich communities and influx of adult-specific microbes were observed during the first year of life. The introduction of allergenic solids promoted a significant increase in Shannon diversity and representation of specific microbes, such as genera belonging to Prevotellaceae and Proteobacteria (eg, Escherichia/Shigella), as compared with infants recommended to exclusively breast-feed.CONCLUSIONS:
Specific gut microbiota characteristics of samples from 3-month-old breast-fed infants were associated with cesarean birth, and greater Clostridium sensu stricto abundance was associated with atopic dermatitis. The randomized introduction of allergenic solids from age 3 months alongside breast-feeding was associated with differential dynamics of maturation of the gut microbial communities.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Dermatitis, Atopic
/
Diet
/
Gastrointestinal Microbiome
/
Food Hypersensitivity
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
J Allergy Clin Immunol
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article