14 Aug Microbiome in Children Associated With Mode of Delivery at Birth

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Zhe-Xue Quan

Zhe-Xue Quan, PhD
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering
Institute of Biodiversity Science
School of Life Sciences, Fudan University
Shanghai, China 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? 

Response: The maturation of skin microbial communities during childhood is important for the skin health of children and development of the immune system into adulthood. This necessitates a better characterization of the environmental and genetic factors influencing these microbiome dynamics.

We investigated the skin microbiota of children (158 subjects between 1 and 10 years old) and their mothers using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Sample location and age were the primary factors determining a child’s skin bacterial composition. Relative abundances of Streptococcus and Granulicatella were negatively correlated with age, and the alpha diversity at all body sites examined increased during the first 10 years of life, especially on the face. The facial bacterial composition of 10-year-old children was strongly associated with delivery mode at birth. 

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: This study demonstrated that the skin microbiome is strongly impacted by the surrounding microenvironment and that the alpha diversity of the skin microbiome increases during childhood, suggesting that the bacterial population on a child’s skin is to a large extent similar to that of their mothers and is affected by the delivery mode in the long-term. As such, maternal factors may play an important role in shaping the child’s microbiome.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work? 

Response: For better understanding of the familial factors that shape the development of the child microbiome, it is needed for deeper exploration into the mechanism underlying the similarity in microbial structures between mothers and their children. And continued investigation will be necessary to determine the effect of the maturation of microbial composition in childhood on health in adulthood and over the course of life. 

Any disclosures? This work was supported by Johnson & Johnson. 

Citation:

Ting Zhu, Xing Liu, Fan-Qi Kong, Yuan-Yuan Duan, Alyson L. Yee, Madeline Kim, Carlos Galzote, Jack A. Gilbert, Zhe-Xue Quan. Age and Mothers: Potent Influences of Children’s Skin Microbiota. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.jid.2019.05.018 

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Last Updated on August 14, 2019 by Marie Benz MD FAAD