Gut bacteria that prevent growth impairments transmitted by microbiota from malnourished children

Abstract

Undernourished children exhibit impaired gut microbiota development. Transplanting microbiota from 6- and 18-month old healthy or undernourished Malawian donors into young germ-free mice fed a Malawian diet revealed that immature microbiota from undernourished infants/children transmit impaired growth phenotypes. The representation of several age-discriminatory taxa in recipient animals correlated with lean body mass gain, liver, muscle, and brain metabolism, plus bone morphology. Co-housing mice shortly after receiving microbiota from healthy (H) or severely stunted/underweight (Un) infants demonstrated that invasion of age-/growth-discriminatory taxa from H to Un cagemates’ microbiota ameliorates growth faltering. Adding two invasive species, Ruminococcus gnavus and Clostridium symbiosum, to the Un microbiota also ameliorated growth and metabolic abnormalities. These results provide evidence that microbiota immaturity is causally related to undernutrition, and reveal potential therapeutic targets and agents.

Impact of the gut microbiota on enhancer accessibility in gut intraepithelial lymphocytes

“…Future efforts to understand how the functional epigenetic states of IELs are modified by specific members of the gut microbiota, the nature of the diet being consumed, and the period in postnatal development when these cells first encounter gut microbes will be important to develop a mechanistic understanding of how these interactions contribute to protective immunity. These questions are relevant not only to normal host development but also to disorders in which various facets of development are impaired, including in children with undernutrition who have disrupted maturation of their gut microbiota (49,50).…”

Micronutrient Adequacy and Dietary Diversity Exert Positive and Distinct Effects on Linear Growth in Urban Zambian Infants

“…Reductions in gut microbial diversity were associated with the severity of growth faltering in 345 two infant cohorts from Malawi and Bangladesh, while the increased relative abundance of a 346 single bacterial genus was associated longitudinally with impaired linear growth (55,56). We 347 could not investigate here whether the effect of dietary diversity on growth is mediated by the 348 gut microbiota, thus the exploration of the inter-relationships among infants' diet, the gut 349 microbiome and growth in several ongoing trials in Malawi (57) and Zimbabwe (44) is 350 timely.…”

Neurodevelopment, Nutrition, and Inflammation: The Evolving Global Child Health Landscape

“…The critical roles of the microbiota in influencing susceptibility to (and being influenced by) malnutrition and enteric and other infections are rapidly growing areas of research and are beyond the scope of this overview. 85,86 Similarly, relevant metabolic and other biomarkers of intestinal barrier function, microbial translocation, inflammatory and immunologic signaling, and local and systemic inflammation are important areas of research and clinical application. 87,88 …”