Abstract
The knowledge of the importance of the interaction between the gastro-intestinal microbiome and the human being in health and disease has accumulated exponentially during recent years. Colonization of the gastro-intestinal tract during early life is critically important for a balanced development as it will determine digestive and motility maturation, metabolic, immune and brain development in early life. The optimal healthy microbiota during early life still needs further evaluation.
Many factors, environmental and patient related, determine the composition of the microbiome. Medication administered to a pregnant women, mode of delivery, mode of feeding, medication administered to the baby, will all influence the composition of the first colonization of the gastro-intestinal tract. The discovery that mother’s milk contains large amounts of prebiotic oligosaccharides and small amount of probiotic bacteria had a major impact on infant formula composition. Pre- and probiotics are commonly used as supplementation in infant formula. Prebiotic oligosaccharides stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria aiming to mimic the gastrointestinal microbiota of breastfed infants. In general, results with prebiotics in therapeutic indications are disappointing. Studies suggest that probiotic supplementation may be beneficial in prevention and management of disease, e.g. reducing the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants, prevention and treatment of acute gastroenteritis in infants. Although many studies show promising beneficial effects, the long-term health benefits and eventual risks of probiotic supplementation during early life are not clear. It is likely that ongoing research will result in the use of specific probiotic organisms and/or prebiotic oligosaccharides during the first 1,000 days of life, with the goal to develop a healthy microbiota from conception over birth into the first two years of life, while lowering risk of infections and inflammatory events.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Tamburini S, Shen N, Wu HC, Clemente JC. The microbiome in early life: implications for health outcomes. Nat Med. 2016;22:713–22.
Clooney AG, Bernstein CN, Leslie WD, Vagianos K, Sargent M, Laserna-Mendieta EJ, Claesson MJ, Targownik LE. A comparison of the gut microbiome between long-term users and non-users of proton pump inhibitors. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2016;43:974–84.
Prince AL, Antony KM, Chu DM, Aagaard KM. The microbiome, parturition, and timing of birth: more questions than answers. J Reprod Immunol. 2014;104–105:12–9.
Kuperman AA, Koren O. Antibiotic use during pregnancy: how bad is it? BMC Med. 2016;14:91.
Rautava S, Collado MC, Salminen S, Isolauri E. Probiotics modulate host-microbe interaction in the placenta and fetal gut: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Neonatology. 2012;102:178–84.
Meena J, Charles MV, Ali A, Ramakrishnan S, Gosh S, Seetha KS. Utility of cord blood culture in early onset neonatal sepsis. Australas Med J. 2015;8:263–7.
Jiménez E, et al. Isolation of commensal bacteria from umbilical cord blood of healthy neonates born by cesarean section. Curr Microbiol. 2005;51:270–4.
Gosalbes MJ, Vallès Y, Jiménez-Hernández N, Balle C, Riva P, Miravet-Verde S, de Vries LE, Llop S, Agersø Y, Sørensen SJ, Ballester F, Francino MP. High frequencies of antibiotic resistance genes in infants’ meconium and early fecal samples. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2016;7:35–44.
Jiménez E, Marín ML, Martín R, Odriozola JM, Olivares M, Xaus J, Fernández L, Rodríguez JM. Is meconium from healthy newborns actually sterile? Res Microbiol. 2008;159:187–93.
Goldenberg RL, Culhane JF, Iams JD, Romero R. Epidemiology and causes of preterm birth. Lancet. 2008;371:75–84.
Romero R, Hassan SS, Gajer P, Tarca AL, Fadrosh DW, Nikita L, Galuppi M, Lamont RF, Chaemsaithong P, Miranda J, Chaiworapongsa T, Ravel J. The composition and stability of the vaginal microbiota of normal pregnant women is different from that of non-pregnant women. Microbiome. 2014;2:4.
Hersh AL, Shapiro DJ, Pavia AT, Shah SS. Antibiotic prescribing in ambulatory pediatrics in the United States. Pediatrics. 2011;128:1053–61.
Hicks LA, Bartoces MG, Roberts RM, Suda KJ, Hunkler RJ, Taylor Jr TH, Schrag SJ. US outpatient antibiotic prescribing variation according to geography, patient population, and provider specialty in 2011. Clin Infect Dis. 2015;60:1308–16.
Arrieta MC, Stiemsma LT, Amenyogbe N, Brown EM, Finlay B. The intestinal microbiome in early life: health and disease. Front Immunol. 2014;5:427.
Hoskin-Parr L, Teyhan A, Blocker A, Henderson AJ. Antibiotic exposure in the first 2 years of life and development of asthma and other allergic diseases by 7.5 years: a dose-dependent relationship. Pediatr Allerg Immunol. 2013;24:762–71.
Örtqvist AK, Lundholm C, Kieler H, Ludvigsson JF, Fall T, Ye W, Almqvist C. Antibiotics in fetal and early life, and subsequent childhood asthma: nationwide population-based study with sibling analysis. Br Med J. 2014;349:g6979.
Kronman MP, Zaoutis TE, Haynes K, Feng R, Coffin SE. Antibiotic exposure and IBD development among children: a population-based cohort study. Pediatrics. 2012;130:e794–803.
Metsälä J, Lundqvist A, Virta LJ, Kaila M, Gissler M, Virtanen SM. Mother’s and offspring’s use of antibiotics, and infant allergy to cow’s milk. Epidemiology. 2013;24:303–9.
Mikkelsen KH, Knop FK, Frost M, Hallas J, Pottegård A. Use of antibiotics and risk of type 2 diabetes: a population-based case-control study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2015;100:3633–40.
Semic-Jusufagic A, Belgrave D, Pickles A, Telcian AG, Bakhsoliani E, Sykes A, Simpson A, Johnston SL, Custovic A. Assessing the association of early-life antibiotic prescription with asthma exacerbations, impaired antiviral immunity and genetic variants in 17q21: a population-based birth-cohort study. Lancet Respir Med. 2014;2:621–30.
Langdon A, Crook N, Dantas G. The effects of antibiotics on the microbiome throughout development and alternative approaches for therapeutic modulation. Genome Med. 2016;8:39.
Cox LM, Yamanishi S, Sohn J, Alekseyenko AV, Leung JM, Cho I, Kim SG, Li H, Gao Z, Mahana D, Zárate Rodriguez JG, Rogers AB, Robine N, Loke P, Blaser MJ. Altering the intestinal microbiota during a critical developmental window has lasting metabolic consequences. Cell. 2014;158:705–21.
Walker AW, Flint HJ. Editorial: further evidence that proton pump inhibitors may impact on the gut microbiota. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2016;43:1104–5.
Gonzalez-Perez G, Hicks AL, Tekieli TM, Radens CM, Williams BL, Lamousé-Smith ES. Maternal antibiotic treatment impacts development of the neonatal intestinal microbiome and antiviral immunity. J Immunol. 2016;196:3768–79.
Yatsunenko T, Rey FE, Manary MJ, Trehan I, Dominguez-Bello MG, Contreras M, Magris M, Hidalgo G, Baldassano RN, Anokhin AP, Heath AC, Warner B, Reeder J, Kuczynski J, Caporaso JG, Lozupone CA, Lauber C, Clemente JC, Knights D, Knight R, Gordon JI. Human gut microbiome viewed across age and geography. Nature. 2012;486:222–7.
Hesselmar B, Sjöberg F, Saalman R, Aberg N, Adlerberth I, Wold AE. Pacifier cleaning practices and risk of allergy development. Pediatrics. 2013;131:e1829–e37.
Song SJ, Lauber C, Costello EK, Lozupone CA, Humphrey G, Berg-Lyons D, Caporaso JG, Knights D, Clemente JC, Nakielny S, Gordon JI, Fierer N, Knight R. Cohabiting family members share microbiota with one another and with their dogs. Elife. 2013;2:e00458.
Faith JJ, Guruge JL, Charbonneau M, Subramanian S, Seedorf H, Goodman AL, Clemente JC, Knight R, Heath AC, Leibel RL, Rosenbaum M, Gordon JI. The long-term stability of the human gut microbiota. Science. 2013;341:1237439.
Goodrich JK, Waters JL, Poole AC, Sutter JL, Koren O, Blekhman R, Beaumont M, Van Treuren W, Knight R, Bell JT, Spector TD, Clark AG, Ley RE. Human genetics shape the gut microbiome. Cell. 2014;159:789–99.
Lim ES, Zhou Y, Zhao G, Bauer IK, Droit L, Ndao IM, Warner BB, Tarr PI, Wang D, Holtz LR. Early-life dynamics of the human gut virome and bacterial microbiome in infants. Nat Med. 2015;21:1228–34.
Gaitanis G, Magiatis P, Hantschke M, Bassukas ID, Velegraki A. The Malassezia genus in skin and systemic diseases. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2012;25:106–41.
Moré MI, Swidsinski A. Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 supports regeneration of the intestinal microbiota after diarrheic dysbiosis—a review. Clin Exp Gastroenterol. 2015;8:237–55.
DiGiulio DB, Romero R, Amogan HP, Kusanovic JP, Bik EM, Gotsch F, Kim CJ, Erez O, Edwin S, Relman DA. Microbial prevalence, diversity and abundance in amniotic fluid during preterm labor: a molecular and culture-based investigation. PLoS One. 2008;3:e3056.
Pelucchi C, Chatenoud L, Turati F, Galeone C, Moja L, Bach JF, La Vecchia C. Probiotics supplementation during pregnancy or infancy for the prevention of atopic dermatitis: a meta-analysis. Epidemiology. 2012;23:402–14.
Kim SO, Ah YM, Yu YM, Choi KH, Shin WG, Lee JY. Effects of probiotics for the treatment of atopic dermatitis: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2014;113:217–26.
Taylor AL, Dunstan JA, Prescott SL. Probiotic supplementation for the first 6 months of life fails to reduce the risk of atopic dermatitis and increases the risk of allergen sensitization in high-risk children: a randomized controlled trial. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007;119:184–91.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vandenplas, Y., Huysentruyt, K. (2017). The Microbiome in Healthy Children. In: Green, R. (eds) Viral Infections in Children, Volume I. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54033-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54033-7_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54032-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54033-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)