We selected 31 children recruited into the CDGEMM cohort for whom stool samples were available at birth, 3 months, and 4–6 months for this study (see Table 1 and see Additional file 1: Table S1 for more detailed metadata). None of these infants consumed solid foods before 6 months, which makes them ideal for studying the effect of genetic and environmental risk factors on the gut microbiota in the absence of gluten as a confounder. Twenty-six of these infants were genetically susceptible to developing CD out of which 19 were either heterozygous for DQ2 or DQ8 or carried both DQ2 and DQ8 (referred to as “standard genetic risk” hereafter) and seven were homozygous for DQ2 (referred to as “high genetic risk” hereafter). Additionally, 19 infants who were genetically predisposed to CD and that have been exposed to at least one environmental risk factor are referred to as “environmentally exposed” infants throughout the rest of manuscript. This means that these infants were born via cesarean section or exposed to antibiotics at or during birth (i.e., antibiotics administered to the mother during delivery) or were not exclusively breastmilk-fed (i.e., formula-fed or both formula- and breastmilk-fed). Seven infants who were genetically susceptible and that were not exposed to any of these environmental risk factors, i.e., those born vaginally and not exposed to antibiotics at or during delivery and exclusively breastmilk-fed, are referred to as “environmentally non-exposed” hereafter.
Table 1
Study cohort metadata and genotype. This study cohort was extracted from the larger CDGEMM prospective longitudinal birth cohort study [33].
| USA (n = 18) | Italy (n = 13) | Total (n = 31) | |
Gender (%) | | | |
Male | 11 (61.1) | 7 (53.8) | 18 (58.0) |
Female | 7 (38.9) | 6 (46.2) | 13 (42.0) |
Mode of Delivery (%) | | | |
Vaginal | 11 (61.1) | 7 (53.8) | 18 (58.0) |
C-section | 7 (38.9) | 6 (46.2) | 13 (42.0) |
Feeding Type (4–6 months of age) (%) | | | |
Breastmilk only | 12 (66.7) | 4 (30.7) | 16 (51.6) |
Formula only | 5 (27.8) | 6 (46.2) | 11 (35.5) |
Both | 1 (5.5) | 3 (23.1) | 4 (12.9) |
Antibiotic Exposure (%) | | | |
At delivery (mother) | 7 (38.9) | 2 (15.4) | 9 (29.0) |
At birth (infant) | 2 (11.1) | 2 (15.4) | 4 (12.9) |
Before 6 months of age (infant) | 0 (0.0) | 4 (30.8) | 4 (12.9) |
Genotype (%) | | | |
DQ2 Homozygous | 6 (33.3) | 1 (7.7) | 7 (22.6) |
DQ2 Heterozygous | 6 (33.3) | 6 (46.2) | 12 (38.7) |
DQ2/DQ8 | 3 (16.7) | 2 (15.4) | 5 (16.1) |
DQ8 | 1 (5.5) | 1 (7.7) | 2 (6.5) |
Negative | 2 (11.1) | 3 (23.1) | 5 (16.1) |
Relative with CD | | | |
Mother | 15 (83.3) | 7 (53.8) | 22 (70.9) |
Father | 1 (5.5) | 1 (7.7) | 2 (6.5) |
Sibling | 2 (11.1) | 5 (38.4) | 7 (22.6) |
Collected stool samples underwent shotgun metagenomic sequencing and metabolomic profiling. We analyzed metagenomic sequencing reads (see Methods) to profile microbial taxa at species-level resolution (see Additional file 2: S2) and functional pathways encoded by metagenomes (see Additional file3: S3). Additionally, stool samples underwent metabolomic profiling and were analyzed to identify metabolites present in each stool sample (see Additional file 4: S4). The identified microbial taxa, functional pathways and metabolites were then analyzed rigorously to explore how genetic and environmental risk factors influence the development of the gut microbiota as outlined below.
Associations between genetic and environmental risk factors and various microbiota features
We used the MaAslin procedure [34] to investigate how various microbiome features including microbial species, functional pathways and metabolites at each time point are associated with genetic risk for developing CD and three key environmental risk factors including mode of delivery, exposure to antibiotics and infant feeding type (see Fig. 1).
In addition to association with microbial species, we found that a high genetic risk of developing CD is associated with a decreased abundance of a number of functional pathways at 4–6 months of age (Fig. 1B; p-value < 0.05). These pathways include amino acid metabolism, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and metabolism of cofactors including ubiquinone and other terpenoid-quinone biosynthesis. Furthermore, we identified an association between high genetic risk and a number of metabolites, e.g., an increased abundance of butanoic acid and a decreased abundance of dihydroxyacteone at 3 and 4–6 months of age (Fig. 1C, p-value < 0.05).
Changes in the microbiota of environmentally exposed vs. non-exposed infants
Here, we performed a cross-sectional (inter-subject) analysis to explore how various features of the gut microbiota (microbes, pathways and metabolites) change between genetically predisposed infants who were exposed to at least one environmental risk factor noted before (environmentally exposed infants) vs. those who were not (environmentally non-exposed infants). This analysis did not identify any microbial species whose abundance is significantly different between the environmentally exposed and non-exposed infants (FDR-adjusted p-value < 0.05). Pathways analysis, however, revealed that environmentally exposed infants have a higher abundance of pathways for xenobiotic degradation, fatty acid metabolism, and lipid metabolism among others (at enrollment) and of pathways such as toluene and xylene and biphenyl degradation (at 4–6 months) (Fig. 2A; p-value < 0.05). Furthermore, metabolomic analysis identified a decrease in homoserine and 2-ketobutryic acid among others and an increase in ribose and tyramine at all study time points in environmentally exposed infants (Fig. 2B; p-value < 0.05).
Longitudinal changes in the microbiota of environmentally exposed and non-exposed infants
Given the unique prospective study design of our cohort, we were able to perform a longitudinal (intra-subject) analysis to gain additional insights beyond a cross-sectional analysis by identifying dynamic alterations in the gut microbiota composition, function and metabolome in the first six months after birth. To this end, we explored changes in the microbiota features noted above between all pairs of time points that are observed exclusively in environmentally exposed or exclusively in environmentally non-exposed infants (Fig. 3).
By longitudinal analysis of microbial species, we found that the abundance of a number of species increases over time in the environmentally exposed infants (Fig. 3A; FDR-adjusted p-value < 0.05). For example, the abundance of Anaerostipes caccae monotonically increases during the study period and that of Klebsiella species and Erysipelotrichaceae bacterium increases from enrollment to 4–6 months. Among these, Klebsiella, has been associated with the autoimmune condition ankylosing spondylitis [52]. When examining environmentally non-exposed infants, we observe that the abundance of Bacteroides uniformis monotonically increases during the first 6 months after birth, a pattern which has previously been reported in breastmilk-fed infants [53]. In addition, work in mice found that Bacteroides uniformis improves immune defense mechanisms, which are impaired in obesity, by decreasing TNF-α production and increasing IL-10 production [54]. In our study, we also observed a decrease in the abundance of Veillonella species from enrollment to 4–6 months in non-exposed infants. An increased abundance of Veillonella species has been associated with autoimmune hepatitis [36].
Longitudinal pathway analysis revealed that the abundance of ether lipid metabolism increases from 3 to 4–6 months of age in environmentally exposed infants (Fig. 3B; p-value < 0.05). Notably, a decreased abundance of ether lipids in the serum of children with T1D compared to healthy controls has been observed, [55] although the relationship between the abundance of microbial pathways for ether lipid metabolism in the gut and the level of ether lipids in the serum are yet to be explored. For the non-exposed infants, we observe a decrease in the abundance of sulfur metabolism and lipoic acid metabolism at 3 and 4–6 months, and of methane metabolism and biotin metabolism at 4–6 months compared to enrollment. These patterns are consistent with previous reports [34, 56–62]. For example, increased sulfur metabolism is associated with the development of type 1 diabetes [56] and linked to IBD [34]. Additionally, lipoic acid is an antioxidant that has been suggested to have beneficial immunomodulatory effects on the innate and adaptive immune systems in autoimmune diseases [57]. Methane has also been shown to have an anti-inflammatory effect, promoting immune tolerance in the intestine when tested in animal models [58, 59]. Furthermore, biotin is known to enhance innate [60] and adaptive immune responses [61] and biotin deficiency has been associated with immune disorders and inflammation[63, 64]. A previous study also found that high dose of biotin may be useful in treating multiple sclerosis [62].
Metabolomic analysis revealed a monotonic increase in erythritol abundances during the study period and a decrease in propionic acid abundance from enrollment to 4–6 months in environmentally exposed infants (Fig. 3C; p-value < 0.05). Propionic acid produced in the colon via bacterial fermentation of fiber promotes regulatory T cell generation [65]. Additionally, increased serum levels of erythritol have been associated with central obesity and weight gain [66], though the link between metabolite levels in the gut and those in the serum is not clear. In environmentally non-exposed infants, we observed an increased abundance of uracil, 3-3-hydroxyphenylpropionic acid and dihydroxyacetone from enrollment to 4–6 months. Previous work suggests that 3-hydroxyphenylproprionic acid acts as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent [67].