Abstract
It is acknowledged that some obesity trajectories are set early in life, and that rapid weight gain in infancy is a risk factor for later development of obesity. Identifying modifiable factors associated with early rapid weight gain is a prerequisite for curtailing the growing worldwide obesity epidemic. Recently, much attention has been given to findings indicating that gut microbiota may play a role in obesity development. We aim at identifying how the development of early gut microbiota is associated with expected infant growth. We developed a novel procedure that allows for the identification of longitudinal gut microbiota patterns (corresponding to the gut ecosystem developing), which are associated with an outcome of interest, while appropriately controlling for the false discovery rate. Our method identified developmental pathways of Staphylococcus species and Escherichia coli that were associated with expected growth, and traditional methods indicated that the detection of Bacteroides species at day 30 was associated with growth. Our method should have wide future applicability for studying gut microbiota, and is particularly important for translational considerations, as it is critical to understand the timing of microbiome transitions prior to attempting to manipulate gut microbiota in early life.
Highlights
Gut microbiota has a critical role in human health [1,2,3,4,5,6]; early infancy is of special interest because the early life period is a determinant for the subsequent adult-like microbiota
Since rapid weight gain in early life is a risk factor for the later development of obesity [13], we aimed to study whether early infant gut microbiota was associated with the World Health Organization’s definition of expected growth in the first six months of life
We developed a novel statistical approach that allowed the identification of longitudinal gut microbiota patterns that were associated with expected growth, while appropriately restricting the false discovery rate
Summary
Gut microbiota has a critical role in human health [1,2,3,4,5,6]; early infancy is of special interest because the early life period is a determinant for the subsequent adult-like microbiota. Obesity has been linked to gut microbiota in humans, by being associated with reduced bacterial diversity and altered representation of bacterial genes and metabolic pathways [4]. Since rapid weight gain in early life is a risk factor for the later development of obesity [13], we aimed to study whether early infant gut microbiota was associated with the World Health Organization’s definition of expected growth in the first six months of life. As gut microbiota can be altered, or even transplanted [4], there is large potential for future medical interventions
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