The gut microbiome and Insulin Resistance in children born very preterm - metatranscriptomics

Preterm children are at increased risk for insulin resistance, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. We hypothesise that adverse early life events in preterm children may lead to alterations in the gut microbiome, which contribute to the risk of developing later metabolic disease. Our objective of this study was to characterise and compare the metabolic phenotype, microbial composition and functions of children born very preterm with those of children born at term. Participants were healthy prepubertal children aged 5 to 11 years who had been born very preterm (<32 weeks of gestation; n=51) or at term (37 - 42 weeks; n=50). We performed a mixed ‘omics’ (i.e. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, meta-transcriptomic, shot-gun metagenomic, and metabolomic) analysis to investigate the composition and functions of the gut microbiota in our cross-sectional study population.