ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Neurology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1648471
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Insights into Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder and its ComorbiditiesView all 4 articles
Gut Microbiota Characteristics and Therapeutic Effects of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Central China: A Combined Cross-Sectional and Prospective Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University Department of Pediatrics, Wuhan, China
- 2Department of Pediatric Surgery, Zhongnan hospital of Wuhan university, wuhan, China
- 3Hubei University School of Life Sciences, Wuhan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study investigated gut microbiota dysbiosis in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and evaluated the clinical efficacy of a simplified fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) protocol. A cross-sectional analysis compared 48 children with ASD and 51 age-and sexmatched healthy controls, revealing reduced microbial diversity in the ASD group, with decreased abundances of Faecalibacterium and Bifidobacterium, and increased levels of Megamonas and Akkermansia. Subsequently, 25 ASD participants received FMT using pediatric donors, following a protocol of three-day bowel preparation and six-day colonoscopic infusion. After three months, significant improvements were observed in both core behavioral symptoms and gastrointestinal comorbidities. Microbiota analysis post-FMT showed increased relative abundances of Prevotella, Faecalibacterium, Agathobacter, and Dorea, along with a decrease in Escherichia-Shigella. These findings suggest that a streamlined, pediatric donor-based FMT protocol is both safe and clinically effective, offering a promising strategy for microbiota-targeted interventions in children with ASD.
Keywords: fecal microbiota transplantation, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Therapeutic effect, Intestinal health, gut-brain axis
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 12 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 wu, teng, Guo, cai, lv, gao, Zhang, Shen and Fan. 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: Jingyi Fan, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University Department of Pediatrics, Wuhan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.