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Longitudinal Survey of Microbiota in Hospitalized Preterm Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants

Aloka L Patel1, Ece A Mutlu, Yan Sun

  • 1*Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL †Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin ‡Research and Testing Laboratory, Lubbock, TX §University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago ||WakeMed Health and Hospitals, Raleigh, NC.

Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition
|August 1, 2015
PubMed

Insights

The gut bacteria of hospitalized preterm infants become less diverse and more uniform during the first month, with a rise in potentially pathogenic microbes. This study tracked infant gut microbiome changes in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Neonatal Research
  • Gut Microbiome Studies

Background:

  • The gut microbiome plays a crucial role in infant health and development.
  • Preterm infants often experience altered microbial colonization due to medical interventions and prolonged hospitalization.
  • Understanding the early life microbiome is vital for developing targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the dynamic changes in bacterial communities within hospitalized preterm infants during their first month of life.
  • To characterize the composition and diversity of the infant gut microbiota from birth through neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay.

Main Methods:

  • Daily rectal swabs collected from 12 preterm infants for 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) next-generation sequencing.
  • Operational taxonomic unit (OTU) clustering and taxonomy assignment using Greengenes database and Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology (QIIME).
  • Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for Bifidobacterium spp. abundance and Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) for functional analysis.

Main Results:

  • Microbial richness and Shannon diversity decreased significantly during NICU hospitalization, indicating a shift towards a more uniform microbiota.
  • Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcaceae, and Enterococcaceae dominated the bacterial composition, while Bifidobacterium spp. were rarely detected.
  • Functional analysis revealed enrichment of pathways related to peroxisome, PPAR signaling, and aminobenzoate degradation in early samples.

Conclusions:

  • Hospitalized preterm infants exhibit individualized microbiota at birth, but this diversity diminishes during NICU stays.
  • The developing gut microbiome in preterm infants shows an increasing prevalence of potentially pathogenic bacteria over time.
  • These findings highlight the impact of the NICU environment on the preterm infant microbiome and suggest potential risks associated with dysbiosis.
Abstract

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