AUTHOR=Moles Laura , Gómez Marta , Jiménez Esther , Bustos Gerardo , de Andrés Javier , Melgar Ana , Escuder Diana , Fernández Leónides , del Campo Rosa , Rodríguez Juan Miguel 

TITLE=Bacterial Diversity of the Gastric Content of Preterm Infants during Their First Month of Life at the Hospital

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=Volume 4 - 2017

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2017.00012

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2017.00012

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=Studies focused on the stomach microbiota are relatively scarce and, most of them are focused on the adult population. The aim of this work was to describe the bacterial communities inhabiting the gastric content of preterm neonates. For that purpose, gastric content samples were collected weekly from a total of 13 preterm neonates during their first month of life within their hospital stay. Samples were analyzed by using both culture-dependent and independent techniques. The former allowed the isolation of bacteria belonging mainly to the genera Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Serratia, Klebsiella and Escherichia. The cultured dominant species in the gastric content samples during all the hospitalization period were Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Multi Locus Strain Typing (MLST) analysis revealed the presence of high-risk clonal complexes associated with the hospital environment, which may colonize enteral feeding tubes. Similarly, the 16S rRNA sequencing showed that Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Corynebacterium and Propionibacterium, were the dominant genera present at 75% of the gastric samples. However, the genera Serratia, Klebsiella and Streptococcus were the most abundant. Own mother’s milk (OMM) and donor milk (DM) were collected after their pass through the external feeding tubes (EFT) to assess their bacterial content. OMM and DM had a similar bacterial pattern to gastric content. Based on these data, the gastric content of preterm neonates is dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, and harbors high-risk bacterial clones, which may colonize enteral feeding tubes, and, therefore the feeds that pass through them.