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Chen RY, Kung VL, Das S, Hossain MS, Hibberd MC, Guruge J, Mahfuz M, Begum SMKN, Rahman MM, Fahim SM, Gazi MA, Haque MR, Sarker SA, Mazumder RN, Luccia BD, Ahsan K, Kennedy E, Santiago-Borges J, Rodionov DA, Leyn SA, Osterman AL, Barratt MJ, Ahmed T, Gordon JI. Duodenal Microbiota in Stunted Undernourished Children with Enteropathy. N Engl J Med 2020; 383:321-333. [PMID: 32706533 PMCID: PMC7289524 DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa1916004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is an enigmatic disorder of the small intestine that is postulated to play a role in childhood undernutrition, a pressing global health problem. Defining the incidence of this disorder, its pathophysiological features, and its contribution to impaired linear and ponderal growth has been hampered by the difficulty in directly sampling the small intestinal mucosa and microbial community (microbiota). METHODS In this study, among 110 young children (mean age, 18 months) with linear growth stunting who were living in an urban slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and had not benefited from a nutritional intervention, we performed endoscopy in 80 children who had biopsy-confirmed EED and available plasma and duodenal samples. We quantified the levels of 4077 plasma proteins and 2619 proteins in duodenal biopsy samples obtained from these children. The levels of bacterial strains in microbiota recovered from duodenal aspirate from each child were determined with the use of culture-independent methods. In addition, we obtained 21 plasma samples and 27 fecal samples from age-matched healthy children living in the same area. Young germ-free mice that had been fed a Bangladeshi diet were colonized with bacterial strains cultured from the duodenal aspirates. RESULTS Of the bacterial strains that were obtained from the children, the absolute levels of a shared group of 14 taxa (which are not typically classified as enteropathogens) were negatively correlated with linear growth (length-for-age z score, r = -0.49; P = 0.003) and positively correlated with duodenal proteins involved in immunoinflammatory responses. The representation of these 14 duodenal taxa in fecal microbiota was significantly different from that in samples obtained from healthy children (P<0.001 by permutational multivariate analysis of variance). Enteropathy of the small intestine developed in gnotobiotic mice that had been colonized with cultured duodenal strains obtained from children with EED. CONCLUSIONS These results provide support for a causal relationship between growth stunting and components of the small intestinal microbiota and enteropathy and offer a rationale for developing therapies that target these microbial contributions to EED. (Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02812615.).
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Y. Chen
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Vanderlene L. Kung
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington
University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Subhasish Das
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Shabab Hossain
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Matthew C. Hibberd
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington
University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Janaki Guruge
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Mustafa Mahfuz
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | | | - M. Masudur Rahman
- Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute and Hospital,
Dhaka 1210, Bangladesh
| | - Shah Mohammad Fahim
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Amran Gazi
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - M. Rashidul Haque
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Shafiqul Alam Sarker
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - R. N. Mazumder
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Blanda Di Luccia
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington
University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Kazi Ahsan
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Elizabeth Kennedy
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Jesus Santiago-Borges
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Dmitry A. Rodionov
- A. A. Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission
Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 127994, Russia
- Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, Sanford
Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037 US
| | - Semen A. Leyn
- A. A. Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission
Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 127994, Russia
- Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, Sanford
Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037 US
| | - Andrei L. Osterman
- Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, Sanford
Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037 US
| | - Michael J. Barratt
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington
University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - Tahmeed Ahmed
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Jeffrey I. Gordon
- Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems
Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington
University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
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