[Background/Aims] The correct gut microbiota colonization at the beginning of life is a key event for the foundation of early and future health. This process is compromised in premature babies due to different aspects: immaturity, long hospital stay, medications, difficulties for oral feeding, etc. Several studies have identified the alterations on this process, being Bifidobacterium one of the most affected microbial groups. Bifidobacterium is one of the first colonizers and dominant in the intestinal microbiota of breast-fed healthy babies. Moreover, some strains are widely used as probiotics, with premature babies being among the population groups that could benefit more from the development of probiotics for promoting a correct microbiota establishment. Here we aimed at characterizing the colonization and development of bifidobacterial microbiota in premature babies exposed to different perinatal factors. [Methods] Faecal samples were collected at 2, 10, 30 and 90 days of life from 40 premature- and 40 full term-babies (for comparison). DNA was extracted, used for PCR-amplification of the ITS region, submitted to next-generation-sequencing and the sequences were annotated against an improved bifidobacterial ITS database (Milani et al. 2014). [Results] We found noticeable differences in the abundance of bifidobacterial species between premature and full term babies along the first three months of life. Among the different perinatal factors studied, delivery mode and feeding, further affected the composition of bifidobacteria in premature babies. [Conclusions] ITS region allowed to monitor the gut bifidobacteria colonization during the first months of life. This work confirm that different perinatal factors affect the microbiota development in preterm babies and extends this observation to the specific influence on the bifidobacterial microbiota. This would allow improving the development of bifidobacteria as probiotic for promoting a correct gut microbiota colonization in these infants.

Trabajo presentado en el 10th Workshop on Probiotics and Prebiotics, de la Sociedad Española de Probióticos y Prebióticos (SEPyP), celebrado en Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, del 6 al 8 de febrero de 2019