The impact of gut microbiome modulating interventions on fecal
metabolome of infants: A systematic review and quality assessment
Abstract
The development of the gut microbiome in infancy is a vulnerable process
that may be perturbed by antibiotics or supported by probiotics. While
effects of these “biotics” have been well-studied through DNA
sequencing, it remains unclear how the resulting compositional changes
affect the microbiome’s metabolic functions. Additionally, limits in
method standardization require careful quality assessment of studies
reporting fecal metabolome. We conducted a systematic search in Embase
and MEDLINE for studies describing fecal metabolites from term and
near-term infants, together with anti-, pre-, or probiotic intervention.
The search identified 680 articles, of which 60 were assessed for
eligibility and 21 included. We first developed operational checklists
for transparent and reproducible reporting and evaluated the quality of
metabolomic methodologies. This analysis supported our aim to summarise
changes in the fecal metabolome induced by biotic interventions. Despite
a varying quality of metabolomic methodology, we identified similarities
in the fecal metabolome profiles in response to specific biotic
interventions. Among the most frequently observed metabolites, which
seemed to be consistently altered after biotic interventions, were bile
acids, aromatic amino acids, and short-chain fatty acids. We conclude
with a discussion on appropriate experimental design, controls, and
metabolomics reporting to guide future research permitting
meta-analyses.