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Research Article: Longitudinal observational study protocol – Preterm Infants: Microbiome Establishment, Neuro-CrossTalk and Origins (PIMENTO)

Date Published: 2023-09-25

Abstract:
Introduction Very preterm infants are at risk of abnormal microbiome colonisation in the first weeks to months of life. Several important associated factors have been identified including gestational age, mode of delivery, antibiotic exposure and feeding. Preterm infants are at risk of a number of pathologies for which the microbiome may play a central role, including necrotising enterocolitis and sepsis. The objective of this study is to determine detailed microbiome changes that occur around implementation of different management practices including empiric antibiotic use, advancement of feeds and administration of probiotics during admission to the neonatal intensive care unit. Methods and analysis A single-site, longitudinal observational study of infants born less than 32 weeks gestation, including collection of maternal samples around delivery and breastmilk and infant samples from admission through discharge from the neonatal unit. Ethics and dissemination The protocol was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Cork Teaching Hospitals. The findings from this study will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals, during scientific conferences, and directly to the study participants. Sequencing data will be deposited in public databases. Trial registration number NCT05803577 .

Introduction:
Over the last two decades, the materno-feto-neonatal microbiome has rapidly become an area of budding interest in the specialty of neonatology. While there is much debate as to whether a developing fetus is exposed to micro-organisms in utero, 1 it is increasingly evident that the gut microbiome does not expand and diversify until the postnatal period at which point microbes from the mother and environment begin colonisation of the infant. Following birth, an initial relatively simple microbial community develops…

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