The Preterm Infant Microbiome: Biological, Behavioral and Health Outcomes at 2 and 4 Years of Age

This project follows a cohort of 78 Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) previously enrolled infants in a R21 grant plus additional 25 infants through their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay until they reach the age of 4 years. The data, gathered over 6 weeks of the NICU stay, includes multiple factors, such as prenatal and postnatal events and illnesses, received human milk amount, weekly means of cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and secretory Immunoglobulin A in the milk, and weekly levels of fecal calprotectin. These factors could potentially alter the gut microbiome. Microbiome species and diversities will be measured in the laboratory of Dr. Jack Gilbert at Argonne National Laboratory using state of the science deep sequencing and amplification of microbial sRNA genes. The microbiome will again be measured in stool samples from those children at the ages of 2 and 4 years. Relationship between the prenatal and postnatal factors, human milk volume and immunobiology, fecal calprotectin levels, and the very early microbiome will be analyzed. The predictive power of the VLBW infant gut microbiome for determining later childhood microbiomes will be analyzed prospectively. The relationships between microbiomes across time and later growth, development and health will be determined. VLBW infants are at risk for both early and later health effects, and the role of the microbiome in these effects will be measured in this prospective study. ]]> Inclusion: infants born with birth weights of less than 1500 grams (very low birth weight and extremely low birth weight infants). Infants enrolled in a previous study will be recruited into this longitudinal study with measurements at 2-3 and 4 years of age. Exclusion: congenital anomalies, moribund infants]]> Infants were recruited in a previous study, and stool samples were collected weekly from the time of first sample for a maximum of six weeks during their NICU hospitalization. They were then all invited into the new longitudinal study which measured children as toddlers (ages 2-3) and at 4 years of age. Stool microbiomes were collected at each sampling time, along with multiple measures of health, growth and development. About one quarter of mothers agreed to have their infant samples entered into the childhood longitudinal study.]]>