Hospital fellow Samsung Medical Center Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi, Republic of Korea
Background: The gut microbiome plays an important role in the health of infants. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiome is known to be associated with a higher risk of sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis in infants. In addition, it is thought to be related to the long-term morbidity of infants through interactions such as the gut-lung axis and the gut-brain axis. In previous studies conducted to identify the perinatal factors, maternal factors, or maternal health conditions that influence the neonatal microbiome. Antenatal steroids are known to have a protective effect, such as promoting lung and brain maturation contributing to improved survival of preterm infants. Objective: In this study, we tried to identify the effect of antenatal steroid on the gut microbiome of neonates in the early stages of perinatal period for investigating their potential mechanism of protective effects for preterm infants. Design/Methods: We prospectively enrolled infants who were hospitalized in the newborn nursery care unit (NB) or neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Hanyang University Hospital, Seoul, Korea, from August 2021 until May 2023. A total of 80 newborns were included in the study, and their stool samples were collected around 7 days after birth and were used for analysis. Data on maternal and perinatal characteristics, neonatal demographics were collected based on medical records. Gut colonization profiling was performed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing using MinION™ nanopore sequencing. The fecal gDNA samples were extracted, and the V1-V9 libaray of ONT MinION preparation was performed using MinION Flow Cell with MinKNOW software. Taxonomic and diversity analysis was exerted using the MetONTIIME pipeline with SILVA database version 138.1.
This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Hanyang University Medical Center. Data of study population has collected. Currently, DNA extraction and nanopore sequencing are underway, and it is expected that the results will be available by December 2023. It is anticipated that data analysis for these results will be possible in early 2024.
