Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • In Brief
  • Published:

Microbiome

Early life dysbiosis increases asthma risk

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 13, page 660 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Mouse models have pointed to a role for dysbiosis of the gut microbiota during early life in the aetiology of asthma. Arrieta et al. surveyed 319 children from a 3-year longitudinal study and found that a similar phenomenon occurs in humans. 16S rRNA profiling of stool samples from 3-month and 1-year time points showed that an increased risk of asthma was associated with a reduced abundance of four bacterial genera — Lachnospira, Veillonella, Faecalibacterium and Rothia — during the first 100 days of life. Using a mouse model of asthma, inoculation of germ-free animals with one of the human dysbiotic stool samples confirmed that the severity of the inflammatory response could be significantly weakened by supplementation with these four genera. Finally, metabolic measurements of the dysbiotic stools revealed functional changes in the microbiome, including a decrease in the concentrations of LPS and acetate compared with healthy stools, although how these functional changes might relate to asthma is not known.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Arrieta, M.-C. et al. Early infancy microbial and metabolic alterations affect risk of childhood asthma. Sci. Transl Med. 7, 307ra152 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Naomi Attar
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Attar, N. Early life dysbiosis increases asthma risk. Nat Rev Microbiol 13, 660 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3574

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3574

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing