ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1632412
This article is part of the Research TopicNew and advanced mechanistic insights into the influences of the infant gut microbiota on human health and disease, Volume IIView all articles
Intestinal microbiota changes in early life of very preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia：a Nested Case-Control study
Provisionally accepted
Tao Ning1,2
Xiaoxue Shan1Xiaowen Zhuang1Bingjie Li1Yuhan Zhang1Tianyu Chen1Song Peng1Han Lu1Qiong Xue2Huaiyu Yan2Yimei Ren1
Shudong Cui1
Xiaoqing Chen1*- 1First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
- 2Suqian Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Suqian, Jiangsu Province, China
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Background & aim: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is one of the most important complications of very preterm infants. This study was to investigate changes in the intestinal microbiota of very preterm infants with BPD.Methods: We enrolled 50 very preterm infants at the gestation age of 24+ 0 -31+ 6 weeks, categorizing them into BPD group and control group, and fecal samples were collected on days 1, 7, 14, 21 & 28, respectively. Finally, 30 preterm infants were left after excluding 20 preterm infants. We tested and analyzed 16s rDNA of bacteria and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) within the feces.Results: BPD group possessed a higher abundance of Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU) and lower abundance of Bacteroidota than the control on day 1. The differences in intestinal microbiota reduced on day 7 and 14, and no difference of SCFAs existed on day 14. New differences emerged over time, with a significant decrease of Veillonella dispar in BPD group than in the control on day 28, which showed a continuous decline in BPD group over time.Intestinal microbiota dysbiosis existed in very preterm infants with BPD. The increased abundance of UU on day 1 and the decrease of Veillonella dispar on day 28 might increase the risk of BPD.
Keywords: Intestinal/gut microbiota, Microbiota dysbiosis, preterm infant, Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia, high-throughput sequencing
Received: 21 May 2025; Accepted: 24 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ning, Shan, Zhuang, Li, Zhang, Chen, Peng, Lu, Xue, Yan, Ren, Cui and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoqing Chen, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
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