Autologous fecal microbiota transplantation restores the infant gut microbiome and metabolome after antibiotics: a case report.
Sun H, Dulencin A, Kirn TJ, Vo J, Liachko I
Microbiome
The same microbial community dynamics that make your compost pile resilient or fragile — disruption, succession, and recovery — play out in infant guts, and this research shows that saving a 'seed bank' of microbes before disturbance can restore the whole system afterward.
Antibiotics wipe out many of the helpful microbes living in a baby's gut during a critical period of development. Researchers tested whether giving a baby back their own stool — collected before antibiotics — could help restore those microbes. The baby who received the transplant recovered much more completely than the one who didn't, suggesting this 'seed bank' approach can reverse antibiotic damage.
Key Findings
Amoxicillin treatment in infants caused measurable disruption to gut microbial communities, increased antibiotic resistance genes, and altered metabolites including short-chain fatty acids and bile acids.
The infant who did NOT receive the autologous fecal transplant showed persistently altered microbiome composition and antibiotic resistance gene profiles throughout the follow-up period.
The infant who received their own pre-antibiotic stool back showed convergence toward pre-antibiotic microbial community structure and reduction of antibiotic resistance genes including β-lactam and tetracycline resistance genes.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A study found that giving infants their own pre-antibiotic stool back as a transplant helped restore their gut bacteria and metabolism after antibiotic treatment, while infants who didn't receive the transplant stayed disrupted for longer.
Abstract Preview
Antibiotic exposure during infancy disrupts gut microbiome assembly during a critical developmental window. Strategies to restore these ecosystems remain limited. In the REPAIR trial (NCT06609980),...
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