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Colonic metabolome and SIDS: compared to what?

Pediatric Research volume 95, pages 607–608 (2024)Cite this article

The Original Article was published on 13 October 2023

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden, unexpected death of an infant that cannot be explained following a thorough investigation including a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history.1 SIDS is among the five leading causes of infant mortality in the United States.2 Although the basic mechanisms of SIDS remain unknown, decades of epidemiologic investigations have uncovered several strong, modifiable, risk factors, including prone sleeping and pre- and postnatal tobacco smoke exposure;3 in the United States, public health campaigns to encourage supine positioning and other safe sleep practices resulted in substantial, immediate, reductions in the incidence of SIDS, although the rate of decline has slowed over the past 20 years.4

In this issue of the Journal, Terry and Dyer report on the metabolome, microbiome, serotonin, and expression of genes related to serotonin synthesis in colonic tissue taken at autopsy from victims of SIDS and a control group who died of non-SIDS causes, excluding deaths from gastrointestinal disease.5 They report increased variability of the colonic metabolome of SIDS cases compared to controls, but no significant differences in individual metabolites between the groups. They also report non-significantly increased serotonin among the cases, but no significant differences between the groups in gene expression or microbiome.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Perinatal Research, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

    Mark A. Klebanoff

  2. Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA

    Mark A. Klebanoff

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  1. Mark A. Klebanoff
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Correspondence to Mark A. Klebanoff.

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Klebanoff, M.A. Colonic metabolome and SIDS: compared to what?. Pediatr Res 95, 607–608 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02862-1

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