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The University of Alberta-led research followed more than 400 infants from the CHILD Cohort Study (CHILD) at its Edmonton site. Boys whose gut bacterial makeup was rich in Bacteroidetes bacteria by the age of one were found to have more advanced cognitive and language skills a year later. The finding was specific to male children.
“It is well known that girls score higher (at an early age), especially in terms of cognition and language,” said Anita Kozyrskyj, professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta and principal investigator. from the SyMBIOTA laboratory (Synergy in Microbiota). “But when it comes to gut microbial makeup, it was the male infants where we saw this obvious link between Bacteroidetes and improved scores.”
“The differences between the male and female gut microbiota are very subtle, but we know from data from the CHILD cohort study that girls at an early age are more likely to have more of these Bacteroidetes. be that most girls have a sufficient number of Bacteroidetes and that’s why they improved their scores compared to boys, ”Kozyrskyj added.
The researchers, led by Kozyrskyj and associate professor of pediatrics Piush Mandhane, studied bacteria found in stool samples from infants and identified three different groups with similar dominant clusters of bacteria. They then assessed the infants on various scales of neural development. Of these groups, only male infants with Bacteroidetes dominant bacteria showed signs of improved neurodevelopment.
The research replicates similar results from a US study that also showed an association between Bacteroidetes and neural development.
According to Kozyrskyj, Bacteroidetes are one of the few bacteria that produce metabolites called sphingolipids, which are instrumental in the formation and structure of neurons in the brain.
“It makes sense that if you have more of these microbes and they produce more sphingolipids, then you should see some improvement in terms of neural connection formation in our brain and improvement in cognition and language scores,” she declared.
Cesarean section is a factor that can significantly deplete Bacteroidetes, Kozyrskyj says. Factors that positively influence the composition of the gut microbiota in infants include breastfeeding, a high fiber diet, living with a dog, and exposure to nature and green spaces.
While the results do not necessarily mean that children with a lower proportion of Bacteroidetes will lag behind their peers later in childhood or adulthood, the researchers believe the study holds promise as a means of potentially identifying children at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders.
The team will continue to follow infants participating in CHILD to determine if the results may be predictive of autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In the future, researchers are also looking at several other factors that may impact the neurodevelopment of infants, including stress and intestinal colonization by Clostridium difficile bacteria.
“In the first one to two years of life, your brain is very malleable,” Kozyrskyj said. “Now we see a link between its malleability and the gut microbiota, and I think that’s very important.”
Source of the story:
Material provided by University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. Original written by Ross Neitz. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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