Marseille — There's a lot at stake in the first few months of life, and our gut microbiota are no exception. A newborn and infant's microbiota are especially vulnerable to environmental threats. A stable ecosystem does not develop until the age of 2 or 3 years.
In toddlers, pathogenesis in the microbiota is linked to the microbiota's immaturity and to dysbiosis (or imbalance of the microbiota), explained Aurélie Morand, MD, PhD, infectious diseases pediatrician at the Timone Hospital in Marseille, France (part of Marseille Public Hospitals), at a conference held by the French Pediatric Society.
This dysbiosis, depending on the number and nature of environmental threats, will either be rapidly corrected or become long-lasting and lead to short- or long-term disease.
"The dysbiosis of the microbiota plays a real role in short-term pathogenesis, such as in acute necrotizing enterocolitis in newborns and premature babies, in diarrhea occurring after a bout of gastroenteritis or alongside antibiotic use, in multidrug-resistant bacteria colonization, in susceptibility to infection (B Streptococcus, etc.), in colitis caused by C. difficile, and so forth," said Morand.
"On a long-term basis, it is difficult to figure out the role of the microbiota in the onset of dysbiosis after antibiotic use, for example, and that of a subsequent pathology, from likely intertwined roles, as in
