Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG-supplemented formula expands butyrate-producing bacterial strains in food allergic infants

The ISME Journal advance online publication, 22 September 2015; doi:10.1038/ismej.2015.151

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Roberto Berni Canani^1,8, Naseer Sangwan^2,8, Andrew T Stefka^3,8, Rita Nocerino¹, Lorella Paparo¹, Rosita Aitoro¹, Antonio Calignano⁴, Aly A Khan⁵, Jack A Gilbert^2,6,7and Cathryn R Nagler³

1. ¹Department of Translational Medical Science, Section of Pediatrics, European Laboratory for the Investigation of Food-Induced Diseases, University of Naples, Federico II, Naples, Italy
2. ²Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, Department of Biosciences, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
3. ³Committee on Immunology and Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
4. ⁴Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
5. ⁵Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
6. ⁶Department of Surgery, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
7. ⁷Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

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Abstract

Dietary intervention with extensively hydrolyzed casein formula supplemented with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (EHCF+LGG) accelerates tolerance acquisition in infants with cow’s milk allergy (CMA). We examined whether this effect is attributable, at least in part, to an influence on the gut microbiota. Fecal samples from healthy controls (n=20) and from CMA infants (n=19) before and after treatment with EHCF with (n=12) and without (n=7) supplementation with LGG were compared by 16S rRNA-based operational taxonomic unit clustering and oligotyping.

Differential feature selection and generalized linear model fitting revealed that the CMA infants have a diverse gut microbial community structure dominated by Lachnospiraceae (20.5±9.7%) and Ruminococcaceae (16.2±9.1%). Blautia, Roseburia and Coprococcus were significantly enriched following treatment with EHCF and LGG, but only one genus,Oscillospira, was significantly different between infants that became tolerant and those that remained allergic. However, most tolerant infants showed a significant increase in fecal butyrate levels, and those taxa that were significantly enriched in these samples, Blautia and Roseburia, exhibited specific strain-level demarcations between tolerant and allergic infants. Our data suggest that EHCF+LGG promotes tolerance in infants with CMA, in part, by influencing the strain-level bacterial community structure of the infant gut.

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