Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Department of Microbiology, Christian Medical College, Vellore 632004, India.
Nutrients. 2023 Feb 28;15(5):1213. doi: 10.3390/nu15051213.
The profile of the intestinal microbiota is known to be altered in malnourished young children in low- and middle-income countries. However, there are limited studies longitudinally evaluating the intestinal microbiota in malnourished young children in resource-limited settings over the first two years of life. In this longitudinal pilot study, we determined the effect of age, residential location, and intervention on the composition, relative abundance, and diversity of the intestinal microbiota in a representative sample of children under 24 months of age with no diarrhea in the preceding 72 h in the urban and rural areas of Sindh, Pakistan nested within a cluster-randomized trial evaluating the effect of zinc and micronutrients on growth and morbidity (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00705445). The major findings were age-related with significant changes in alpha and beta diversity with increasing age. There was a significant increase in the relative abundance of the Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes phyla and a significant decrease in that of the Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria phyla ( < 0.0001). There were significant increases in the relative abundances of the major genera and ( < 0.0001), and no significant change in the relative abundance of . Using the LEfSE algorithm, differentially abundant taxa were identified between children in the first and second years of age, between those residing in rural and urban areas, and those who received different interventions at different ages from 3 to 24 months. The numbers of malnourished (underweight, wasted, stunted) or well-nourished children at each age, in each intervention arm, and at urban or rural sites were too small to determine if there were significant differences in alpha or beta diversity or differentially abundant taxa among them. Further longitudinal studies with larger numbers of well-nourished and malnourished children are required to fully characterize the intestinal microbiota of children in this region.
已知在中低收入国家，营养不良的幼儿肠道微生物群的特征发生改变。然而，在资源有限的环境中，关于生命最初两年营养不良幼儿肠道微生物群的纵向研究有限。在这项纵向试点研究中，我们确定了年龄、居住地点和干预措施对 24 个月以下、72 小时内无腹泻的儿童肠道微生物群组成、相对丰度和多样性的影响，该研究是在巴基斯坦信德省城乡地区进行的一项随机分组试验的嵌套研究，该试验评估了锌和微量营养素对生长和发病率的影响（临床试验.gov 标识符：NCT00705445）。主要发现与年龄有关，随着年龄的增长，α和β多样性发生显著变化。厚壁菌门和拟杆菌门的相对丰度显著增加，放线菌门和变形菌门的相对丰度显著降低（<0.0001）。属和属的相对丰度显著增加（<0.0001），但属的相对丰度没有显著变化。使用 LEfSE 算法，确定了 1 岁和 2 岁儿童、城乡儿童以及在 3 至 24 个月不同年龄接受不同干预的儿童之间差异丰富的分类群。在每个年龄、每个干预组、城乡地点的营养状况不良（体重不足、消瘦、发育迟缓）或营养良好的儿童数量太少，无法确定α或β多样性或差异丰富的分类群之间是否存在显著差异。需要进一步进行更多数量的营养良好和营养不良的儿童的纵向研究，以充分描述该地区儿童的肠道微生物群。
