"Necrotizing enterocolitis" ("NEC") is a heterogeneous group of intestinal injuries experienced primarily in preterm infants. Risk factors include among others preterm gut microbiome alterations. Maternal milk (MM), or otherwise parent milk, is protective for the developing intestine due to its constituents, which include bioactive antimicrobials, immunomodulatory molecules, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), and microorganisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review was based on a symposium that examined novel aspects of the microbiome during pregnancy and early life and explored papers published by the lecturers. For example, it showed that bacterial extracellular vesicles derived from the microbiome harboured in various maternal niches, carried bacterial deoxyribonucleic acid, were isolated from the placenta and may have confounded placental microbiome studies. Maternal diet was responsible for the composition and diversity of breast milk microbiota, and may have shaped the offspring's microbiome and influenced their immune components.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBirth occurring at ≤32 weeks' gestation ("very preterm") or at ≤28 weeks' gestation ("extremely preterm") potentially poses considerable health problems for the neonate, including respiratory sequelae, not only during the immediate newborn period, but throughout childhood and into adulthood. With the progressive improvements in neonatal care, the survival of extremely preterm and very preterm neonates has improved substantially. However, a considerable percentage of these infants suffer dysfunctions that may trigger, at some stage later in life, the onset of respiratory morbidities.
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