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Title: Bacterial community structure and functional contributions to emergence of health or necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants

Journal Article · · Microbiome
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7]
  1. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Pediatrics. Section of Neonatology; Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Medicine. Section of Gastroenterology
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Inst. for Genomics and Systems Biology
  3. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Pediatrics. Section of Neonatology
  4. Argonne, IL (United States). Mathematics and Computer Science Division
  5. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Medicine. Section of Gastroenterology
  6. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Inst. for Genomics and Systems Biology; Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Mathematics and Computer Science Division
  7. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Medicine. Section of Gastroenterology; Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Inst. for Genomics and Systems Biology

Background: Preterm infants represent a unique patient population that is born functionally immature and must accomplish development under the influence of a hospital environment. Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an inflammatory intestinal disorder affecting preterm infants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the progression of intestinal microbiota community development between preterm infants who remained healthy compared to preterm infants who developed NEC. Results: Weekly fecal samples from ten preterm infants, five with NEC and five matched healthy controls were obtained. Bacterial DNA from individual fecal samples was subjected to sequencing of 16S rRNA-based inventories using the 454 GS-FLX platform. Fecal samples from control infants demonstrated a temporal pattern in their microbiota, which converged toward that of a healthy full term breast-fed infant. Microbiota development in NEC patients diverged from controls beginning three weeks prior to diagnosis. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed to identify functional differences in the respective microbiota of fecal samples from a set of twins in which one twin developed NEC and one did not. The majority of the differentially abundant genes in the NEC patient were associated with carbohydrate metabolism and mapped to members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. This may indicate an adaptation of the community to an altered profile of substrate availability for specific members as a first step towards the development of NEC. We propose that the microbial communities as a whole may metabolize milk differently, resulting in differential substrate availability for specific microbial groups. Additional differentially represented gene sets of interest were related to antibiotic resistance and vitamin biosynthesis. Conclusions: Our results suggest that there is a temporal component to microbiome development in healthy preterm infants. Thus, bacteriotherapy for the treatment or prevention of NEC must consider this temporal component of the microbial community in addition to its taxonomic composition and functional content.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1626685
Journal Information:
Microbiome, Vol. 1, Issue 1; ISSN 2049-2618
Publisher:
BioMed CentralCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Preterm infants harbour diverse Klebsiella populations, including atypical species that encode and produce an array of antimicrobial resistance- and virulence-associated factors journal June 2020
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Metagenomic Sequencing with Strain-Level Resolution Implicates Uropathogenic E. coli in Necrotizing Enterocolitis and Mortality in Preterm Infants journal March 2016
The Microbiota of the Extremely Preterm Infant journal June 2017
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Metabolomic and proteomic analysis of serum from preterm infants with necrotising entercolitis and late-onset sepsis journal November 2015
Early Life Experience and Gut Microbiome journal October 2015
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Longitudinal Analysis of the Premature Infant Intestinal Microbiome Prior to Necrotizing Enterocolitis: A Case-Control Study journal March 2015
Feeding Formula Eliminates the Necessity of Bacterial Dysbiosis and Induces Inflammation and Injury in the Paneth Cell Disruption Murine NEC Model in an Osmolality-Dependent Manner journal March 2020
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