Infant diet shapes gut–host immunity

Breast- vs formula-fed infants differ in gut microbiota and host immune gene expression.

Source

A metagenomic study of diet-dependent interaction between gut microbiota and host in infants reveals differences in immune response

Schwartz S, Friedberg I, Ivanov IV, et al. · Genome biology · 2012

doi.org/10.1186/gb-2012-13-4-r32 Read the full paper ↗169 citationscc by

Study at a glance

Design: Cross-sectional — Infant stool metagenomes correlated with host epithelial transcriptomes by feeding mode
N: N=12 · Six breast-fed and six formula-fed infants
Population: Breast-fed and formula-fed human infants
Outcome: Diet-linked microbiota composition and host intestinal/immunity gene expression

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Infant diet shapes gut–host immunity

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Six BF and six FF infants.

A total of six mothers of BF infants and six mothers of FF infants were recruited for the study.

459 intestinal biology-related genes tested.

Genes from two data subsets - 459 intestinal biology-related genes and 660 immunity and defense-related genes - were tested for differential expression between BF and FF infants using a permutation test with a false discovery rate (FDR) [] multiple testing correction.

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What they did

Sequenced stool metagenomes and profiled host epithelial mRNA from 6 breast-fed and 6 formula-fed infants, then correlated taxa/genes with host transcripts.

What they found

Diet altered Firmicutes/Actinobacteria composition; 459 intestinal and 660 immunity genes were tested, with many differentially expressed between diets.

The limits

What it doesn't show

Small n; association does not prove which microbes cause each transcript change.

Key terms

Metagenome: Collective microbial DNA from a community.
Breast-fed (BF): Infants fed human milk.
Formula-fed (FF): Infants fed formula.
Host transcriptome: Gene expression of shed gut epithelial cells.
Actinobacteria: Phylum often enriched in infant guts.
FDR: False discovery rate multiple-testing control.

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BF/FF n:

Common questions

Infants per diet?

Six BF and six FF.

Intestinal gene set size?

459.

Immunity gene set size?

660.

Key contrast?

Diet-linked microbiota and host immune transcripts.