Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
BMJ Open. 2021 Oct 22;11(10):e046241. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046241.
The functional consequences of the bacterial gut microbiome for child health are not well understood. Characteristics of the early child gut microbiome may influence the course of enteric infections, and enteric infections may change the composition of the gut microbiome, all of which may have long-term implications for child growth and development.
We are conducting a community-based birth cohort study to examine interactions between gut microbiome conditions and enteric infections, and how environmental conditions affect the development of the gut microbiome. We will follow 360 newborns from 3 sites along a rural-urban gradient in northern coastal Ecuador, characterising enteric infections and gut microbial communities in the children every 3 to 6 months over their first 2 years of life. We will use longitudinal regression models to assess the correlation between environmental conditions and gut microbiome diversity and presence of specific taxa, controlling for factors that are known to be associated with the gut microbiome, such as diet. From 6 to 12 months of age, we will collect weekly stool samples to compare microbiome conditions in diarrhoea stools versus stools from healthy children prior to, during and after acute enteric infections, using principal-coordinate analysis and other multivariate statistical methods.
Ethics approvals have been obtained from Emory University and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito institutional review boards. The findings will be disseminated through conference presentations and peer-reviewed journals.
肠道微生物组对儿童健康的功能影响尚不清楚。早期儿童肠道微生物组的特征可能会影响肠道感染的进程，而肠道感染可能会改变肠道微生物组的组成，所有这些都可能对儿童的生长发育产生长期影响。
我们正在进行一项基于社区的出生队列研究，以研究肠道微生物组状况与肠道感染之间的相互作用，以及环境条件如何影响肠道微生物组的发育。我们将在厄瓜多尔北部沿海农村到城市梯度的 3 个地点跟踪 360 名新生儿，在他们生命的头 2 年中，每 3 到 6 个月对儿童的肠道感染和肠道微生物群落进行特征描述。我们将使用纵向回归模型来评估环境条件与肠道微生物组多样性和特定分类群存在之间的相关性，控制与肠道微生物组相关的已知因素，如饮食。从 6 到 12 个月大，我们将每周收集粪便样本，使用主坐标分析和其他多变量统计方法，比较急性肠道感染前后、期间和之后腹泻粪便与健康儿童粪便中的微生物组状况。
已获得埃默里大学和基多圣弗朗西斯科大学伦理审查委员会的批准。研究结果将通过会议演讲和同行评议期刊传播。
