Chen Jie, Li Hongfei, Maas Kendra, Starkweather Angela, Chen Minghui, Cong Xiaomei
School of Nursing, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
Department of Pain and Translational Symptom Science, University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Interdiscip Nurs Res. 2022 Nov 23;1(1):6-13. doi: 10.1097/NR9.0000000000000004. eCollection 2022 Nov.
The gut microbiota among preterm infants is shaped by sex and feeding types. However, sex-specific weekly patterns of gut microbiome profiles among preterm infants during their neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of sex on the weekly development of preterm neonatal gut microbiota in the first 4 weeks of NICU hospitalization.
This secondary data analysis included 28 preterm neonates with 261 stool samples collected from January 2014 to February 2015 in the Northeastern United States. The 16S rRNA V4 gene regions of the stool samples were sequenced and aligned against the SILVA 132 database by using Mothur 1.42.3. The sex-specific weekly diversity indexes and relative abundance of bacterial taxonomic composition were generated by Mothur and analyzed by R packages. Sex-specific weekly compositional patterns of the gut microbiome and predicted metabolic functions of gut microbiome profiles were compared, respectively.
In each week of the NICU hospitalization, preterm females and males had significantly distinguished β-diversity indices and compositions of gut microbiota. Both females and males had significantly enriched , a protection feature, in stool samples collected in the third week compared with those in the second week. The predicted metabolic pathways were significantly different between females and males in the second, third, and fourth week of the NICU hospitalization. Both females and males had significantly abundant pathways. Males consistently had more abundance of "lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis" than females in the second, third, and fourth week. Males also had a significant abundance of "membrane and intracellular structural molecules" and "glycan biosynthesis and metabolism" in the second and third week.
Sex shaped the weekly patterns of preterm neonatal gut microbiome profiles during the first 4 weeks of the NICU hospitalization. Further clinical interventions should consider the distinct gut microbiota compositions and predicted functional profiles between female and male preterm neonates.
早产儿的肠道微生物群受性别和喂养方式影响。然而，早产儿在新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）住院期间肠道微生物组特征的性别特异性每周模式仍不清楚。本研究旨在调查性别对NICU住院前4周早产儿肠道微生物群每周发育的影响。
这项二次数据分析纳入了2014年1月至2015年2月在美国东北部收集的28例早产儿的261份粪便样本。使用Mothur 1.42.3对粪便样本的16S rRNA V4基因区域进行测序，并与SILVA 132数据库比对。通过Mothur生成性别特异性每周多样性指数和细菌分类组成的相对丰度，并通过R软件包进行分析。分别比较了肠道微生物组的性别特异性每周组成模式和肠道微生物组特征的预测代谢功能。
在NICU住院的每周，早产女性和男性的肠道微生物群β-多样性指数和组成均有显著差异。与第二周相比，第三周收集的粪便样本中，女性和男性的 均显著富集，这是一种保护特征。在NICU住院的第二、第三和第四周，女性和男性的预测代谢途径存在显著差异。女性和男性均有显著丰富的途径。在第二、第三和第四周，男性的“脂多糖生物合成”始终比女性更丰富。在第二和第三周，男性的“膜和细胞内结构分子”以及“聚糖生物合成和代谢”也显著丰富。
性别塑造了NICU住院前4周早产儿肠道微生物组特征的每周模式。进一步的临床干预应考虑女性和男性早产新生儿不同的肠道微生物群组成和预测的功能特征。
