Projects per year
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.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 613-621.e9 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology |
Volume | 147 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 4 Feb 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2021 |
Keywords
- Atopic dermatitis
- bacteria
- colonization
- diet
- environment
- food
- microbiome
- tolerance
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
- Immunology
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Gut microbiota development during infancy: Impact of introducing allergenic foods'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 3 Finished
-
Dermatology and Genetic Medicine (Strategic Grant) (Joint with Kings College London)
Barton, G. (Investigator), Campbell, P. (Investigator), Hickerson, R. (Investigator), Leigh, I. (Investigator), McLean, I. (Investigator) & Wyatt, P. (Investigator)
1/08/12 → 30/04/19
Project: Research
-
Human and Mouse Genetics Studies of Filaggrin-Related Proteins in Eczema and Allergy (Joint with Trinity College Dublin)
Barton, G. (Investigator) & McLean, I. (Investigator)
1/10/10 → 28/02/14
Project: Research
-
Aref#d: 22163. The Establishment of a Large Case Collection of Childhood Atopic Dermatitis: A Resource for Gemetoc Research (Joint with Trinity College Dublin)
McLean, I. (Investigator)
1/03/10 → 28/02/14
Project: Research