Maturation of Gut Microbiota and Circulating Regulatory T Cells and Development of IgE Sensitization in Early Life.

Recent studies suggest that the cross-talk between the gut microbiota and human immune system during the first year of life is an important regulator of the later development of atopic diseases. We explored the changes in the gut microbiota, blood regulatory T cells, and atopic sensitization in a birth-cohort of Estonian and Finnish children followed from 3 to 36 months of age. We describe here an infant Treg phenotype characterized by high Treg frequency, the maturation of Treg population characterized by a decrease in their frequency accompanied with an increase in the highly activated Treg cells.

Out-of-Hours Care Collaboration between General Practitioners and Hospital Emergency Departments in the Netherlands.

Objective: In the Netherlands, general practitioners (GPs) and emergency departments (EDs) collaborate increasingly in what is called an Urgent Care Collaboration (UCC). In UCCs, GPs and EDs share 1 combined entrance and joint triage. The objective of this study was to determine if GPs treat a larger proportion of out-of-hours patients in the UCC system, and how this relates to patient characteristics.

Aberrant gut microbiota composition at the onset of type 1 diabetes in young children.

Aims/hypothesis: Recent studies indicate that an aberrant gut microbiota is associated with the development of type 1 diabetes, yet little is known about the microbiota in children who have diabetes at an early age. To this end, the microbiota of children aged 1-5 years with new-onset type 1 diabetes was compared with the microbiota of age-matched healthy controls.

Methods: A deep global analysis of the gut microbiota composition was established by phylogenetic microarray analysis using a Human Intestinal Tract Chip (HITChip).

Effects of wheat bran extract containing arabinoxylan oligosaccharides on gastrointestinal parameters in healthy preadolescent children.

Objectives: We assessed whether wheat bran extract (WBE) containing arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides (AXOS) elicited a prebiotic effect and modulated gastrointestinal (GI) parameters in healthy preadolescent children upon consumption in a beverage.

Methods: This double-blind randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial evaluated the effects of consuming WBE at 0 (control) or 5.0 g/day for 3 weeks in 29 healthy children (8-12 years).

Fecal microbiota composition differs between children with β-cell autoimmunity and those without.

The role of the intestinal microbiota as a regulator of autoimmune diabetes in animal models is well-established, but data on human type 1 diabetes are tentative and based on studies including only a few study subjects. To exclude secondary effects of diabetes and HLA risk genotype on gut microbiota, we compared the intestinal microbiota composition in children with at least two diabetes-associated autoantibodies (n = 18) with autoantibody-negative children matched for age, sex, early feeding history, and HLA risk genotype using pyrosequencing. Principal component analysis indicated that a low abundance of lactate-producing and butyrate-producing species was associated with β-cell autoimmunity.