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

This project is following 78 Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) infants previously enrolled in a R21 grant through their NICU stay and a cohort (n=25) are being followed through the age of 4 years. The data gathered over 6 weeks of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay includes multiple factors that could potentially alter the gut microbiome, such as prenatal and postnatal events and illnesses, amount of human milk received, weekly means of cytokines, chemokines, growth factors and secretory Immunoglobulin A in the milk, and weekly levels of fecal calprotectin. Microbiome species and diversities will be measured in the laboratory of Dr. Jack Gilbert at Argonne National Lab using state of the science deep sequencing and amplification of microbial sRNA genes. The microbiome will again be measured in stool samples from these children at the ages of 2 and 4 years. Relationship between the prenatal and postnatal factors, human milk volume and immunobiology... (for more see dbGaP study page.)