Microbial shifts in early life: the pediatric gut microbiome and its role in health and disease - PubMed
5 hours ago
- #Pediatric Health
- #Immune Development
- #Gut Microbiome
- The pediatric gut microbiome plays a crucial role in early-life development, affecting immune, metabolic, and neurodevelopmental processes.
- Neonatal period is a critical window for host-microbiome interactions, with colonization influenced by delivery mode, feeding practices, antibiotics, and environment.
- Beyond bacteria, the early-life gut virome (bacteriophages and eukaryotic viruses) contributes to microbial structure, gene exchange, and immune maturation.
- Microbial signals and metabolites support mucosal integrity, immune programming, and host-microbe equilibrium, impacting long-term immune function.
- Breastfeeding promotes microbial communities linked to immune tolerance, while formula feeding and antibiotics can disrupt healthy microbiome development.
- Altered early microbial trajectories are associated with increased risk of pediatric conditions like allergies, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Emerging microbiome-directed strategies, such as probiotics, prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation, show therapeutic promise but face current challenges.