Straight in intestinal microbes in American babies linked to asthma, allergies, autoimmune disorders

Most American babies are deficient in key key microbes essential for their health

In Rachel more recent Edited by Andrea Gawrylewski

Sale layers are more than a disorderly reality of infant care – Baby’s poop can be an indicator of the intestinal microbiome of an infant and future health.

Scientists have recently published the first two years of My Baby Biome data, a seven -year research project that represents one of the most important and geographically diverse microbiome studies for American infants to date. The results, which came out Communications biology In June, more than 75% of the study of the study were concerned were deficient in key intestinal bacteria associated with a healthy microbiome. Almost all infants showed deficiencies in intestinal microbes. These deficiencies have led to a significantly increased risk that these children develop allergies, asthma or eczema, according to the study.

“Three -quarters of babies run an increased risk of atopic conditions due to the composition of their microbiome,” explains Stephanie Culler, principal author of the new study. “It was, for us, the very large alarm.” Culler is CEO of Persephone BioSciences, a biotechnology company in San Diego, California, which manages the My Baby Biome project and funded research.

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An intestinal microbiome for healthy infants is essential for immune development, and an abnormal microbiome puts babies at a higher risk of being diagnosed with certain autoimmune disorders such as asthma and diabetes of type 1. But a lack of robust data on microbiomes infant in the United States has retained researchers. Culler and his colleagues used social media and word of mouth to recruit the families of 412 infants to participate in the study. Children came from 48 states and were representative of American demographic diversity.

To identify the types of microbial species that were present, the team analyzed bacterial DNA in stool samples that were collected when children were infants and, for 150 of them, additional samples of their child. They also measured other molecules in the samples that gave clues to microbial activity in the children’s intestine. In addition, about half of the participating families have given monitoring information on health results when children were two years old.

Based on the results, only 24% of infants had a healthy microbiome. The rest was deficient in Bifidobacterium—A crucial group of bacteria associated with a lower risk of a multitude of non -transmitted diseases. A quarter of infants had no detectable level of Bifidobacterium at all. In Bifidobacterium-The deficient children, researchers have also detected higher levels of potentially harmful microorganisms, bacteria with genes and antimicrobial resistance molecules that pathogens use to cause a disease. As two years of two years, these children had a three -time risk of developing allergies, asthma or eczema compared to those with a healthy microbiome.

The researchers found no demographic or socioeconomic tendency that could explain why some children had a deficient microbiome or continued to develop a state of health, which suggests that these results could affect “essentially any baby,” says Culler. The team discovered that breastfeeding was associated with greater concentration of Bifidobacterium In children who were current vaginal route. But the data has shown that the combination of vaginal births and breastfeeding was not yet sufficient to ensure a healthy microbiome because many of these children have continued to develop a chronic disease, said Culler.

Researchers from other countries have reported equally alarming results. Last year, for example, scientists from the United Kingdom found Bifidobacterium Species in very low abundance in intestinal microbiobs of approximately one third of the 1,288 infants they tested. The microbiome of these infants was rather dominated by Enterococcus faecalis, A species associated with resistance to antibiotics and negative health results.

The recent American study supports previous research that has established the relationship between Bifidobacterium In early childhood and health, explains Willem de Vos, professor emeritus of human microbiomic at the University of Helsinki, who was not involved in the new work. Of your and the study of his colleagues in 2024 in 1,000 infants in Finland also suggest that Bifidobacterium Species play a key role in the development of the intestinal microbiota – and that the presence of these species is associated with positive health results in children for at least five years. But the new American study adds an important nuance: it revealed that a particular species of Bifidobacterium–Bifidobacterium patent– was associated with a decrease in the risk of illness in two years, while another related species, Bifidobacterium did not seem to play a role in reducing this risk. These results “are very interesting and important”, explains of your.

Erin Davis, a postdoctoral scholarship in pediatric allergy and immunology at the University of Rochester, which was not involved in the new work either, the results linked to the species are striking. “What was unexpected is how the infant Bifidobacterium The species had a different impact on the relative risk of unwanted health results, ”she says.

What stimulates changes in the intestinal microbiome of babies is unknown. But the comparisons of infantile microbiomas of industrialized and non -industrial communities, such as old -fashioned mennonites, suggest that various characteristics of modern life are likely to blame. Such factors could include the overuse of antibiotics, the overexcisance of the environment, a reduction in breastfeeding, a lack of physical contact with other babies, humans and adult animals, and even more, says Matthew OLM, assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, which was not involved in the new study.

“Bifidobacteria on breast milk, and it is conceivable that when only 20% of mothers breastfeed in the 1970s, this caused a decrease in the population with which we still live,” said OLM. “Even if more than 80% of infants are breastfed today, there can be fewer bifidobacteria in the environment to colonize these babies.”