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Abstract
Preterm birth correlates with brain dysmaturation and neurocognitive impairment. The gut microbiome associates with behavioral outcomes in typical development, but its relationship with neurodevelopment in preterm infants is unknown. We characterize fecal microbiome in a cohort of 147 neonates enriched for very preterm birth using 16S-based and shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Delivery mode strongly correlates with the preterm microbiome shortly after birth. Low birth gestational age, infant sex assigned at birth, and antibiotics associate with microbiome composition at neonatal intensive care unit discharge. We integrate these data with term-equivalent structural and diffusion brain MRI. Bacterial community composition associates with MRI features of encephalopathy of prematurity. Particularly, abundances of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. correlate with microstructural parameters in deep and cortical gray matter. Metagenome functional capacity analyses suggest that these bacteria may interact with brain microstructure via tryptophan and propionate metabolism. This study indicates that the gut microbiome associates with brain development following preterm birth.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 101845 |
Journal | Cell Reports Medicine |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 12 |
Early online date | 4 Dec 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 17 Dec 2024 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- brain MRI
- encephalopathy of prematurity
- gut microbiome
- gut-brain modules
- microbiome-gut-brain axis
- neonate
- preterm
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The Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory and the Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort
24/06/21 → 31/12/26
Project: Research