Perinatal factors and type 1 diabetes-associated dysbiosis in Mexican infants

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is currently an autoimmune disease occurring more frequently and early in life. T1D development requires genetic predisposition and environmental factors, which influence the gut microbiota in early infancy and could increase the risk for T1D-associated autoimmunity. In Mexico there are no published microbiota studies in children <6 years old with T1D.

We report two contrasting Mexican T1D cases of children <6 years of age and a third case of a healthy child prior to autoimmunity and T1D onset. Perinatal factors, feeding regimes in the first year of life and gut microbiota composition are discussed and related to the T1D onset. The three cases show a particular microbiota profile with decreased bacterial diversity as compared with healthy children, which could be related to environmental factors prior to the development of T1D and disease control.

T1D infant cases presented a decreased bacterial diversity, which appeared before autoimmunity and T1D onset. Glycemic control could tend to correct the gut dysbiosis in T1D children. Prospective studies are needed to follow-up healthy children at high genetic risk to assess factors related to the microbiota structure.