The Impact of Early Life Experiences and Gut Microbiota on Neurobehavioral Development in Preterm Infants: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

作者：Jie Chen, Hongfei Li, Tingting Zhao, Kun Chen, Ming‐Hui Chen, Zhe Sun, Wanli Xu, Kendra Maas, Barry M. Lester, Xiaomei Cong · 发表于：Microorganisms · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3390/microorganisms11030814 · 被引用次数：20 · 研究领域：Infant Development and Preterm Care、Pediatric Pain Management Techniques、Gut microbiota and health

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of early life experiences and gut microbiota on neurobehavioral development in preterm infants during neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization. Methods: Preterm infants were followed from NICU admission until their 28th postnatal day or until discharge. Daily stool samples, painful/stressful experiences, feeding patterns, and other clinical and demographic data were collected. Gut microbiota was profiled using 16S rRNA sequencing, and operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were selected to predict the neurobehaviors. The neurobehavioral development was assessed by the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) at 36 to 38 weeks of post-menstrual age (PMA). Fifty-five infants who had NNNS measurements were included in the sparse log-contrast regression analysis. Results: Preterm infants who experienced a high level of pain/stress during the NICU hospitalization had higher NNNS stress/abstinence scores. Eight operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified to be associated with NNNS subscales after controlling demographic and clinical features, feeding patterns, and painful/stressful experiences. These OTUs and taxa belonging to seven genera, i.e., Enterobacteriaceae_unclassified, Escherichia-Shigella, Incertae_Sedis, Veillonella, Enterococcus, Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, and Streptococcus with five belonging to Firmicutes and two belonging to Proteobacteria phylum. The enriched abundance of Enterobacter...