PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bokulich, Nicholas A.
AU  - Chung, Jennifer
AU  - Battaglia, Thomas
AU  - Henderson, Nora
AU  - Jay, Melanie
AU  - Li, Huilin
AU  - D. Lieber, Arnon
AU  - Wu, Fen
AU  - Perez-Perez, Guillermo I.
AU  - Chen, Yu
AU  - Schweizer, William
AU  - Zheng, Xuhui
AU  - Contreras, Monica
AU  - Dominguez-Bello, Maria Gloria
AU  - Blaser, Martin J.
TI  - Antibiotics, birth mode, and diet shape microbiome maturation during early life
AID  - 10.1126/scitranslmed.aad7121
DP  - 2016 Jun 15
TA  - Science Translational Medicine
PG  - 343ra82--343ra82
VI  - 8
IP  - 343
4099  - http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/343/343ra82.short
4100  - http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/343/343ra82.full
AB  - The intestinal “microbiota,” that is, the community of microbes inhabiting the human intestinal tract, undergoes many changes during the first 2 years of life. Bokulich et al. now show that this pattern of development is altered in children who are delivered by cesarean section, fed formula, or treated with antibiotics, compared to those babies who were born vaginally, breast-fed, or unexposed to antibiotics. Future studies will determine whether these disturbances influence the health of these babies.Early childhood is a critical stage for the foundation and development of both the microbiome and host. Early-life antibiotic exposures, cesarean section, and formula feeding could disrupt microbiome establishment and adversely affect health later in life. We profiled microbial development during the first 2 years of life in a cohort of 43 U.S. infants and identified multiple disturbances associated with antibiotic exposures, cesarean section, and formula feeding. These exposures contributed to altered establishment of maternal bacteria, delayed microbiome development, and altered α-diversity. These findings illustrate the complexity of early-life microbiome development and its sensitivity to perturbation.