Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, 47500, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 14;11(1):1353. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80278-1.
Emerging evidence has shown a link between the perturbations and development of the gut microbiota in infants with their immediate and long-term health. To better understand the assembly of the gut microbiota in preterm infants, faecal samples were longitudinally collected from the preterm (n = 19) and term (n = 20) infants from birth until month 12. 16S rRNA gene sequencing (n = 141) and metabolomics profiling (n = 141) using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy identified significant differences between groups in various time points. A panel of amino acid metabolites and central metabolism intermediates significantly correlated with the relative abundances of 8 species of bacteria were identified in the preterm group. In contrast, faecal metabolites of term infants had significantly higher levels of metabolites which are commonly found in milk such as fucose and β-hydroxybutyrate. We demonstrated that the early-life factors such as gestational age, birth weight and NICU exposures, exerted a sustained effect to the dynamics of gut microbial composition and metabolism of the neonates up to one year of age. Thus, our findings suggest that intervention at this early time could provide 'metabolic rescue' to preterm infants from aberrant initial gut microbial colonisation and succession.
新出现的证据表明，婴儿肠道微生物群的扰动与发展与其即时和长期健康之间存在关联。为了更好地了解早产儿肠道微生物群的组装，我们从出生到 12 个月，对早产儿（n=19）和足月儿（n=20）婴儿的粪便样本进行了纵向收集。16S rRNA 基因测序（n=141）和代谢组学分析（n=141）使用核磁共振光谱法，在不同时间点发现了两组之间的显著差异。在早产儿组中，一组氨基酸代谢物和中心代谢物中间产物与 8 种细菌的相对丰度显著相关。相比之下，足月婴儿的粪便代谢物中，常见于牛奶的代谢物如岩藻糖和β-羟基丁酸的水平显著较高。我们证明，生命早期因素，如胎龄、出生体重和 NICU 暴露，对新生儿肠道微生物组成和代谢的动态持续到 1 岁。因此，我们的研究结果表明，在这个早期阶段进行干预，可以为早产儿提供“代谢挽救”，防止其异常的初始肠道微生物定植和演替。
