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Impact of Kangaroo Mother Care on Skin Microbiome of Very Preterm Infants - A Pilot Study

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Indian Journal of Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

To test whether Kangaroo mother care (KMC) aids in transfer of favourable skin microbiome from mother to infant by comparing the microbiome composition before and after KMC.

Methods

A prospective cohort pilot study was conducted in a Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in South India, recruiting 30 preterm infants with gestation <32 wk from October 2020 through December 2020. Neonatal skin involving the area in contact with the mother during KMC i.e., axilla, chest and abdomen was swabbed at the end of first week of life, prior to initiation of KMC. The 2nd swab involving the same areas was taken following KMC for 7 d for at least 6 h a day. The swabs were analysed using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) - 16sRNA and abundance of organisms isolated were mapped. Statistical analyses using t-test and PERMANOVA were performed to compare phyla and genera of bacterial abundance pre-KMC and post-KMC.

Results

KMC at phyla level increased the relative abundance of Firmicutes (p=0.52) and significantly decreased Proteobacteria (p=0.02). At species level, KMC decreased pathogenic bacterial count of Escherichia (p=0.05), while counts of S. hemolyticus (p=0.01) and S. hominis (p=.002) significantly increased post KMC.

Conclusions

KMC has a potential role in altering the neonatal skin microbiota towards a more favourable microenvironment. The clinical significance of these novel findings needs to be validated with larger studies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the mothers and their babies enroled in the study and nursing staff for day-to-day care of the neonates in the NICU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Varun Govindarajan & Sahana Devadas

  2. Undergraduate (MBBS), Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Pritik A. Shah

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Oyster Woman and Child Hospital, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Shivashankar Diggikar

Authors
  1. Varun Govindarajan
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  2. Sahana Devadas
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  3. Pritik A. Shah
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  4. Shivashankar Diggikar
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Contributions

S Diggikar, S Devadas: Conceived and conceptualized the research project, study design, critical inputs in statistical analysis, overall supervision; VG and PAS: Data curation and analysis; VG: Study design and drafted the initial manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. S Devadas will act as guarantor for this manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shivashankar Diggikar.

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Ethics Approval

Study approved by Institutional Ethics Committee Board - No. BMCRI/PG/352/2019–20.

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Written informed consent was obtained from the parents.

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None.

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Govindarajan, V., Devadas, S., Shah, P.A. et al. Impact of Kangaroo Mother Care on Skin Microbiome of Very Preterm Infants - A Pilot Study. Indian J Pediatr 91, 229–234 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-023-04562-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-023-04562-4

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