Oral Session
Nutritional Microbiology
Kelsea Drall, BSc
MSc Candidate
University of Alberta Department of Pediatrics
Hein Tun, BVSc, MSc, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong
Meghan Azad, PhD
Assistant Professor
Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
David Guttman, PhD
Professor and Associate Chair for Research
University of Toronto Department of Cell & Systems Biology,
Malcolm Sears, MB, ChB, FRACP, FRCPC, FAAAAI
Professor
McMaster University Department of Medicine
Puishkumar Mandhane, PhD, MD, FRCPC
Associate professor
University of Alberta Department of Pediatrics
Padmaja Subbarao, MD, MSc, FRCP(C), FAAP, LMCC
Assistant Professor
University of Toronto Department of Pediatrics
Stuart Turvey, MBBS, DPhil, FRCPC
Professor
University of British Columbia, Department of Pediatrics
Allan Becker, MD, FRCPC
Professor
University of Manitoba Department of Pediatrics & Child Health
Diana Lefebvre, PhD
Research Manager
McMaster University
Nadia Morales-Lizcano, PhD
Research Associate
University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Theodore Konya, BS, MAT, MPH
Laboratory Manager
University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Objectives :
Colonization with Clostridioides difficile occurs in up to half of infants and is predicted by formula feeding. Although this microbe does not appear to pose any immediate risks for infants, its presence has been associated with susceptibility to chronic disease later in childhood, perhaps by promoting changes in the gut microbiome that may increase opportunity for colonization of pathogenic bacteria. We explored these compositional changes in exclusively breastfed, partially breastfed and exclusively formula fed infants to describe the microbial community and C. difficile colonization in infants with distinct diets.
Methods :
This study includes 1562 infants enrolled in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study. Infants provided a fecal sample at 3-4 months of age (Mean: 3.56, SD: 1.00) which was analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing and targeted qPCR for C. difficile. Mode of feeding was recorded in a questionnaire at a 3 month follow-up visit. C. difficile colonization was defined as positive detection (CD+) in the fecal sample (reference: not present, CD-). Multivariate association with linear models (MaAslin) was used to determine changes in microbiota composition following arsine-square root transformation of relative abundances and FDR correction.
Results : The prevalence of C. difficile colonization among all infants was 30.9%. Colonization rates differed among feeding groups: 22.63% of exclusively breastfed infants, 35.96% of partially breastfed infants and 49.63% of exclusively formula fed infants (p< 0.001). Microbes of the genus Bifidobacterium were decreased in CD+ exclusively breastfed infants compared to non-carriers of the same diet (q=0.02). Additionally, Blautia, Coprococcus and Clostridium, of the Lachnospiraceae family, and microbes of the Bacteroidetes phylum were of higher relative abundance (all q< 0.01) in breastfed CD+ infants (both partial and exclusive). In exclusively formula fed infants, C. difficile colonization was not significantly associated with microbiota composition.
Conclusions :
Funding Sources :
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
AllerGen Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE)