Submit a comment
Abstract
Postnatal growth faltering is a pervasive problem among extremely preterm infants that is independently associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. We previously observed that preterm infants with poor postnatal growth have altered development of the intestinal microbiota relative to preterm infants with appropriate postnatal growth. Here, we used gnotobiotic mice to investigate whether these differences in microbiota development independently contribute to growth faltering. We found that colonization of neonatal mice with microbiotas from extremely preterm infants with poor growth reproduced postnatal growth impairment and induced a metabolic signature of enhanced lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation in the mice, characterized by elevated hepatic acylcarnitines and circulating ketones. In mice colonized at birth with microbiotas from infants with poor growth, postnatal treatment with microbiotas from infants with appropriate growth prevented growth impairment. These results indicate that altered development of the intestinal microbiota contributes to growth faltering in extremely preterm infants, and that microbiota modification can restore postnatal growth.
Authors
Kwai Tei Chan Poon, Se Hyang Han, Olga Ilkayeva, Michael J. Muehlbauer, Christopher B. Newgard, Charles M. Cotten, Patricia L. Ashley, Patrick C. Seed, John F. Rawls, Noelle E. Younge
Guidelines
The Editorial Board will only consider comments that are deemed relevant and of interest to readers. The Journal will not post data that have not been subjected to peer review; or a comment that is essentially a reiteration of another comment.
- Comments appear on the Journal’s website and are linked from the original article’s web page.
- Authors are notified by email if their comments are posted.
- The Journal reserves the right to edit comments for length and clarity.
- No appeals will be considered.
- Comments are not indexed in PubMed.
Specific requirements
- Maximum length, 400 words
- Entered as plain text or HTML
- Author’s name and email address, to be posted with the comment
- Declaration of all potential conflicts of interest (even if these are not ultimately posted); see the Journal’s conflict-of-interest policy
- Comments may not include figures
