Microbiome, Atopic Disease, and Prematurity (MAP) Study

Preterm infants are at a higher risk for the development of asthma and atopic disease, resulting in lifelong negative health consequences. This is likely due, in part, to alterations that occur in the gut microbiome and metabolome during their stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Yet, we don't fully understand the differential role of family history (i.e., maternal asthma diagnosis) and hospital-related clinical factors that might alter microbial exposures early in life.To explore this, we examined a unique cohort of preterm infants born at or before 34 weeks gestational age from two local level III NICUs, as part of the MAP (Microbiome, Atopic Disease, and Prematurity) study. Weekly stool and milk feeds were collected at home until one year of age. Here, we chose a sub-cohort of infants whose mothers had a history of asthma and matched them to the gestational age and sex of infants of mothers without a history of asthma (control). We then performed a prospective, paired metagenomic and metabolomic analysis of stool and milk feed samples collected at birth, 2 weeks and 6 weeks postnatal age.