1. Gut bacteria that prevent growth impairments transmitted by microbiota from malnourished children.
- Author
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Blanton LV, Charbonneau MR, Salih T, Barratt MJ, Venkatesh S, Ilkaveya O, Subramanian S, Manary MJ, Trehan I, Jorgensen JM, Fan YM, Henrissat B, Leyn SA, Rodionov DA, Osterman AL, Maleta KM, Newgard CB, Ashorn P, Dewey KG, and Gordon JI
- Subjects
- Animals, Bifidobacterium physiology, Body Weight, Bone Development, Clostridiales physiology, Disease Models, Animal, Feces microbiology, Femur growth & development, Germ-Free Life, Humans, Infant, Infant Nutrition Disorders metabolism, Malawi, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Bacteria classification, Gastrointestinal Microbiome physiology, Infant Nutrition Disorders microbiology
- Abstract
Undernourished children exhibit impaired development of their gut microbiota. Transplanting microbiota from 6- and 18-month-old healthy or undernourished Malawian donors into young germ-free mice that were fed a Malawian diet revealed that immature microbiota from undernourished infants and children transmit impaired growth phenotypes. The representation of several age-discriminatory taxa in recipient animals correlated with lean body mass gain; liver, muscle, and brain metabolism; and bone morphology. Mice were cohoused shortly after receiving microbiota from healthy or severely stunted and underweight infants; age- and growth-discriminatory taxa from the microbiota of the former were able to invade that of the latter, which prevented growth impairments in recipient animals. Adding two invasive species, Ruminococcus gnavus and Clostridium symbiosum, to the microbiota from undernourished donors also ameliorated growth and metabolic abnormalities in recipient animals. These results provide evidence that microbiota immaturity is causally related to undernutrition and reveal potential therapeutic targets and agents., (Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)
- Published
- 2016
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