Neonatal environment exerts a sustained influence on the development of the intestinal microbiota and metabolic phenotype.

ABSTRACT: The postnatal environment, including factors such as weaning and acquisition of the gut microbiota, has been causally linked to the development of later immunological diseases such as allergy and autoimmunity, and has also been associated with a predisposition to metabolic disorders. We show that the very early-life environment influences the development of both the gut microbiota and host metabolic phenotype in a porcine model of human infants. Farm piglets were nursed by their mothers for 1 day, before removal to highly controlled, individual isolators where they received formula milk until weaning at 21 days. The experiment was repeated, to create two batches, which differed only in minor environmental fluctuations during the first day. At day 1 after birth, metabolic profiling of serum

SUBMITTER: Merrifield CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4681865 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature