Improving Gut Microbiota in Extremely Premature Born Infants with Probiotics¹

Extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants can suffer from a life-threatening gut inflammation due to the altered gut microbiota composition. Probiotic supplementation, which may modulate the gut microbiome, is found to contribute positively to these infants by increasing intestinal bacteria diversity. In a clinical study, 132 infants who had been born extremely premature, i.e. 12 to 17 weeks before the expected delivery date, were randomly assigned to receive oil drops consisting of Lactobacillus reuteri or placebo daily during the neonatal period. 16S amplicon sequencing of the preterm infants’ stool samples was performed at several time points to analyse the bacteria composition. The bacterial diversity and L. reuteri abundance were increased during the first month, whereas no further effects were observed at the follow-up at 2 years of age. The abundance of Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcaceae, on the other hand, was reduced at week 1. With the enhanced gut microbiota diversity and reduced opportunistic pathogens, preterm infants can be positively affected with probiotics supplementation.

References

1. Martí M, et al. Cell Rep Med. 2021;2:100206.