The fecal microbiota of Thai school-aged children associated with demographic factors and diet

Abstract

Background Birth delivery method and breastfeeding practices contribute to microbiota colonization. Other factors including diet and demographic factors structure the gut microbiome assembly and diversity through childhood development. The exploration of these factors, especially in Southeast Asian children, remains limited. Methods We investigated the fecal microbiota of 127 school-aged children in Thailand using quantitative PCR (qPCR) to assess the influence of diet and demographic factors on the gut microbiota. Multivariate analysis (multiple factor analysis (MFA) and Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA)) were used to link particular gut microbes to diet and demographic factors. Results Diet and demographic factors were associated with variation among gut microbiota. The abundance of Gammaproteobacteria increased in children with infrequent intake of high fat foods. Obese children possessed a lower level of Firmicutes and Ruminococcus. Bifidobacterium was enriched in pre-teen aged children and detected at lower levels among formula-fed children. Prevotella was more abundant in children who were delivered vaginally. While ethnicity explained a small amount of variation in the gut microbiota, it nonetheless was found to be significantly associated with microbiome composition. Conclusions Exogenous and demographic factors associate with, and possibly drive, the assembly of the gut microbiome of an understudied population of school-aged children in Thailand.

A Non-Randomized Trial Investigating the Impact of Brown Rice Consumption on Gut Microbiota, Attention, and Short-Term Working Memory in Thai School-Aged Children

“…This study was a non-randomized clinical trial and included 127 children from the Ban Huai Rai Samakee elementary school in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Details on the recruitment of participants, ethical approval (Ethics Registry: REH-61204), metadata collection, and BMI categories have been previously described [ 29 ]. Figure 1 details a flowchart of the study design and data processing.…”

“…Fecal samples were collected from children at baseline, Weeks 4, 15, 56, and 61, and Week 71 in sterilized containers and were immediately frozen at −80 °C. Microbial DNA extraction and quantitative measurement of the absolute abundance of fecal microbiota were carried out as previously described [ 29 ]. Briefly, microbial genomic DNA was extracted from fecal samples using the innuPREP Stool DNA Kit (Analytik Jena Biometra, Jena, Germany), and DNA concentration and purity were determined using the Take 3 Micro-Volume Plate (Biotek, Winooski, VT, USA).…”