The Early Intestinal Microbiota of Healthy Korean Newborns

BACKGROUND The microflora hypothesis may be the underlying explanation for the growth of inflammatory disease. In addition to many known affecting factors, knowing the gut microbiota of healthy newborns can help to understand the gut immunity and modulate it. OBJECTIVES This study examined the microbiota of healthy newborns from urban regions. PATIENTS AND METHODS We enrolled 128 full-term newborns, born at Seoul St. Mary and St. Paul hospital from January 2009 to February 2010. All 143 samples of feces were cultivated in six culture plates to determine the amounts of total bacteria, anaerobes, gram-positive bacteria, coliforms, lactobacilli, and bifidobacteria. The samples were evaluated with a bivariate correlation between coliforms and lactobacilli. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis with HhaI and MspI and a clustering analysis were performed for determination of diversity. RESULTS Bacteria were cultured in 61.5% of feces in the following order: anaerobes, gram-positive bacteria, lactobacilli, coliform, and bifidobacteria. The growth of total bacteria and lactobacilli increased in feces defecated after 24 hours of birth (P < 0.001, P = 0.008) and anaerobes decreased (P = 0.003). A negative correlation between the growth of lactobacilli and coliforms was found (r = -463, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS This study confirms that bacterial colonization of healthy newborns born in cities is non-sterile, but has early diversification and inter-individuality.