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Microbiome

Eating for trillions

Nature volume 532, pages 316–317 (2016)Cite this article

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Three studies investigate the bacteria in the guts of malnourished children and find that, when this microbiota is transferred into mice, supplements of certain microbes or sugars from human breast milk can restore normal growth.

Childhood undernutrition accounts for nearly half of all deaths in infants under the age of five worldwide, and efforts to restore adequate nutritional intake in early infancy have produced only modest outcomes1. A proposed alternative is to alter the population of bacteria that inhabits the intestine, known as the gut microbiota, which modulates intestinal metabolic activity. Indeed, childhood malnutrition has previously been associated with an altered microbiota2. Three papers (two in Science3,4 and one in Cell5) now further establish that the composition of the microbiota is altered in chronically malnourished children. Furthermore, modifying these microbial communities in mice can ameliorate diet-associated growth deficits.

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Figure 1: Help for a healthy gut.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Derrick M. Chu and Kjersti Aagaard are in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.,

    Derrick M. Chu & Kjersti M. Aagaard

  2. K. A. is also in the Departments of Molecular and Human Genetics, Molecular and Cell Biology, and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine.,

    Kjersti M. Aagaard

Authors
  1. Derrick M. Chu
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  2. Kjersti M. Aagaard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kjersti M. Aagaard.

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Chu, D., Aagaard, K. Eating for trillions. Nature 532, 316–317 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17887

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