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.com
Volume 7, Issue 2 (Suppl)
J Ecosyst Ecography, an open access journal
ISSN:2157-7625
September 18-20, 2017
September 18-20, 2017 Toronto, Canada
Joint Conference
International Conference on
International Conference on
Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology
&
Ecology and Ecosystems
Exploring the gut microbiota of Lebanese preterm infants with or without necrotizing enterocolitis
Carole Ayoub Moubareck, Tarek Itani
and
Dolla Karam-Sarkis
Saint Joseph University, Lebanon
Statement of the Problem:
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating inflammatory disease which primarily affects preterm
infants (PTI). Although its exact etiology remains unknown, gut bacterial colonization is recognized to play a pivotal role in its
development. In this study, we hypothesized that differences in bacterial colonization exist between Lebanese PTI with and without
NEC.
Methodology & Theoretical Orientation:
A total of 11 PTI developing NEC was selected from three Lebanese neonatal intensive
care units and matched with 11 controls. Three time intervals were defined: (a) before NEC; (b) most proximate to NEC; and (c) after
NEC onset. Fecal samples were analyzed by q-PCR and TTGE.
Findings:
By qPCR, all infants were colonized by
Staphylococci
and
Enterococci
with significant differences in colonization before NEC
onset. Higher colonization levels by
Staphylococci
(
p=0.034
) and lower colonization levels by
Enterococci
(p=0.039
) and
Lactobacilli
(p=0.048) in the NEC group were noticed indeed. Almost all infants were colonized by
Enterobacteriacae
at high levels with a trend
to higher frequency of colonization in NEC PTI during and after NEC onset.
Bacteroïdes
and all
Clostridia
(except cluster I) were
strongly underrepresented in both groups. Furthermore, throughout the sampling period, comparison of stool samples by TTGE
revealed no particular clusterisation suggesting a high inter-individual variability.
Conclusion & Significance:
This study did not incriminate a unique causative pathogen but suggested that NEC resulted in part from
a perturbation of the intestinal microbiota. It described an abnormal gut microbiota profile in NEC PTI that included high levels
of colonization by
Staphylococci
and low levels of colonization by
Enterococci
and
Lactobacilli
. This understanding in NEC etiology
might be translated into better prophylactic interventions including the use of pre and/or probiotics in order to reduce the incidence
and severity of NEC.
Biography
Carole Ayoub Moubareck is a pharmacist who is specialized in microbiology (Ph.D from the Paris Descartes University) then pursued a Post-doctoral work at the
Institute Pasteur of France. She was responsible of the National Reference Center of Antibiotic Resistance in France from 2007 to 2009. She has worked at Saint
Joseph University in Lebanon and since 2014 she has been in Zayed University in Dubai as Associate Professor. Her research interests are in controlling infectious
diseases by monitoring the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria to antibiotics and characterizing the related resistance mechanisms. She is also interested
in food safety by assessing the innocuity of food strains and studying gene transfers from animal to human bacteria in the digestive ecosystem and evaluating the
influence of environmental factors. An essential part of her research is about the determination of the intestinal mircobiota of preterm infants and the relationship
with the establishment of necrotizing enterocolitis.
Carole.AyoubMoubareck@zu.ac.aeCarole Ayoub Moubareck et al., J Ecosyst Ecography 2017, 7:2 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7625-C1-029