Gut microbiota development during infancy: Impact of introducing allergenic foods

TY - JOUR

T1 - Gut microbiota development during infancy

T2 - Impact of introducing allergenic foods

AU - Marrs, Tom

AU - Jo, Jay Hyun

AU - Perkin, Michael R.

AU - Rivett, Damian W.

AU - Witney, Adam A.

AU - Bruce, Kenneth D.

AU - Logan, Kirsty

AU - Craven, Joanna

AU - Radulovic, Suzana

AU - Versteeg, Serge A.

AU - van Ree, Ronald

AU - McLean, W. H. Irwin

AU - Strachan, David P.

AU - Lack, Gideon

AU - Kong, Heidi H.

AU - Flohr, Carsten

N1 - Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/2

Y1 - 2021/2

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Atopic dermatitis

KW - bacteria

KW - colonization

KW - diet

KW - environment

KW - food

KW - microbiome

KW - tolerance

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85100019727

U2 - 10.1016/j.jaci.2020.09.042

DO - 10.1016/j.jaci.2020.09.042

M3 - Article

C2 - 33551026

AN - SCOPUS:85100019727

SN - 0091-6749

VL - 147

SP - 613-621.e9

JO - Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

JF - Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

IS - 2

ER -