Early-Life Events, Including Mode of Delivery and Type of Feeding, Siblings and Gender, Shape the Developing Gut Microbiota

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/11/11

study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

27362264

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1371/journal.pone.0158498

URI

Authors

Martin R, Makino H, Cetinyurek Yavuz A, Ben-Amor K, Roelofs M, Ishikawa E, Kubota H, Swinkels S, Sakai T, Oishi K, Kushiro A, Knol J

Journal

PloS one

Year

2016

Colonization of the infant gut is believed to be critically important for a healthy growth as it influences gut maturation, metabolic, immune and brain development in early life. Understanding factors that influence this process is important, since an altered colonization has been associated with a higher risk of diseases later in life. Fecal samples were collected from 108 healthy neonates in the first half year of life. The composition and functionality of the microbiota was characterized by measuring 33 different bacterial taxa by qPCR/RT qPCR, and 8 bacterial metabolites. Information regarding gender, place and mode of birth, presence of siblings or pets; feeding pattern and antibiotic use was collected by using questionnaires. Regression analysis techniques were used to study associations between microbiota parameters and confounding factors over time. Bacterial DNA was detected in most meconium samples, suggesting bacterial exposure occurs in utero. After birth, colonization by species of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and Bacteroides was influenced by mode of delivery, type of feeding and presence of siblings, with differences found at species level and over time. Interestingly, infant-type bifidobacterial species such as B. breve or B. longum subsp infantis were confirmed as early colonizers apparently independent of the factors studied here, while B. animalis subsp. lactis presence was found to be dependent solely on the type of feeding, indicating that it might not be a common infant gut inhabitant. One interesting and rather unexpected confounding factor was gender. This study contributes to our understanding of the composition of the microbiota in early life and the succession process and the evolution of the microbial community as a function of time and events occurring during the first 6 months of life. Our results provide new insights that could be taken into consideration when selecting nutritional supplementation strategies to support the developing infant gut microbiome.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/11/11

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, WikiWorks

Subjects

Location of subjects: Netherlands

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Meconium Meconium,meconium

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Cesarean section caesarean section,Cesarean section,cesarean section

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: vaginal delivery

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: C-section

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: babies that were delivered by c-section

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 80

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 28

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): use of antibiotics between 2 weeks prior to delivery and 2 weeks after delivery, for any reason except for prophylactic use (e.g. cesarean section).

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: Not specified

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: RT-qPCR

Statistical Analysis

Statistical test: Mixed-Effects Regression

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/11/11

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Shaimaa Elsafoury

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, WikiWorks

Source: Figure 1

Description: Differential microbial abundance between infants born by vaginal delivery or C-section.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in C-section

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Atopobium
Bacteroides caccae
Bacteroides fragilis
Bacteroides ovatus
Bifidobacterium catenulatum
Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum
Clostridium perfringens
Enterococcus
Phocaeicola vulgatus
Bifidobacterium bifidum
Lactobacillus gasseri
Limosilactobacillus reuteri

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, WikiWorks