The Evolution of the Intestinal Microbiome of Premature Infants and Piglets Receiving Probiotics and Lactoferrin

Abstract

Probiotics and lactoferrin are currently being used in neonatal intensive care units in the hopes of reducing rates of sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis. While studies have shown that these measures can be clinically beneficial to premature babies, little is known about their effect at the level of the intestinal microbiome. We performed a prospective study describing the composition and evolution of the microbiota of premature babies receiving probiotics with and without lactoferrin supplementation. Furthermore, we compared our findings to a piglet model. We found that the addition of lactoferrin did not lead to a distinct microbiome using UniFrac analysis, nor increased diversity or richness as compared to probiotics alone. The relative abundance of probiotic bacterial strains was approximately 3%. At the phylum level Firmicutes and Proteobacteria predominated, while overall Enterobacteriaceae was the most abundant family. We remain the first to describe the microbiome of premature infants receiving lactoferrin.