Background
Asthma is the most prevalent of all childhood diseases and accounts for the majority of hospitalizations and school absences in children [1]. Current mouse model research has identified the early life gut microbiota as a potential therapeutic target for the prevention of asthma and atopic diseases [2–4]. We hypothesize that the early life gut microbiota could play a similar preventative role against atopic disease development in humans.
Methods
1262 children enrolled in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study with complete skin prick test and wheeze data at one year were grouped into four clinically relevant phenotypes: atopy + wheeze, atopy only, wheeze only, and control. Bacterial 16S rDNA from 3-month and 1-year stool samples of 319 children in these four phenotypes was extracted, amplified, and subjected to high throughput Illumina sequencing. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and short chain fatty acid (SCFA) analysis were also conducted on 44 children in the two extreme phenotypes (atopy + wheeze vs. control).
Results
16S sequence analysis of our sample cohort (319 subjects) identified bacterial populations that differed in abundance in the atopy + wheeze group at 3-months of age but not at 1-year of age. Additionally, significant changes in the abundance of certain bacterial genera were found in the atopy + wheeze group when compared to controls by qPCR at 3-months of age only. Changes in stool short chain fatty acid production between the atopy + wheeze group and the control group were also observed at 3-months of age only.
Conclusions
Shifts in the relative abundance of certain gut bacterial populations and differences in the levels of stool SCFAs before 3-months of age are associated with atopy and wheeze at one year of age.
References
Asthma. 2011, World Health Organization
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Russell SL, Gold MJ, Willing BP, Thorson L, McNagny KM, Finlay BB: Perinatal antibiotic treatment affects murine microbiota, immune responses and allergic asthma. Gut Microbes. 2013, 4: 158-64. 10.4161/gmic.23567.
Arnold IC, Dehzad N, Reuter S, Martin H, Becher B, Taube C, Muller A: Helicobacter pylori infection prevents allergic asthma in mouse models through the induction of regulatory T cells. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2011, 121: 3088-3093. 10.1172/JCI45041.
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Leah T Stiemsma, Marie-Claire Arrieta contributed equally to this work.
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Stiemsma, L.T., Arrieta, MC., Dimitriu, P.A. et al. The early life gut microbiota and atopic disease. All Asth Clin Immun 10 (Suppl 2), A63 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1710-1492-10-S2-A63
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1710-1492-10-S2-A63