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  • Clinical Research Article
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Bifidobacterium regulates premature infant gut metabolites, reducing serum inflammatory factors: a randomised controlled trial

Pediatric Research volume 97, pages 1171–1182 (2025)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Analyse the effects of Bifidobacterium BB-12 on intestinal metabolites and serum inflammatory factors in premature infants.

Methods

71 premature infants at gestational age of ≤32 weeks were randomly divided into the probiotic (n = 36) and control (n = 35) groups. Faecal and blood samples were collected from the two groups of premature infants at the 2nd and 4th week of life for intestinal metabolite detection and assessment of the level of the serum inflammatory markers TLR4, NF- κ B, IL-1β, and TNF- α.

Results

Compared to the control group, the probiotic group contained more amino acids, these elements were enriched on multiple amino acid metabolic pathways, and the probiotic group showed significantly lower levels of the serum inflammatory markers TLR4, NF-κB, IL-1β, and TNF-α. Finally, the probiotic group showed a lower incidence of feeding intolerance.

Conclusions

The administration of Bifidobacterium BB-12 is associated with increasing the levels of glutamine, glutamic acid, and kynurenine in the gut of premature infants, and associated with reducing the levels of TLR4 and NF-κB in the serum, further decreasing the secretion of the pro-inflammatory factors IL-1β and TNF-α, and alleviating systemic inflammatory reactions, thereby reducing the incidence of feeding intolerance.

Impact

  1. 1.

    The use of Bifidobacterium BB-12 in premature infants can increase the levels of amino acids in the intestine.

  2. 2.

    Increases in Bifidobacterium BB-12 may decrease the serum levels of TLR4, NF-κB, IL-1β, and TNF-α.

  3. 3.

    Kynurenine may improve the prognosis of preterm infants by reducing inflammation.

  4. 4.

    Bifidobacterium BB-12 may improve the feeding tolerance of premature infants, thus reducing the incidence of feeding intolerance.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2: PLS-DA analysis model response permutation testing RPT graph.
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5: Volcano plot of metabolites.
Fig. 6: The horizontal coordinate indicates the metabolite name and the vertical coordinate indicates the corresponding metabolite name.
Fig. 7: Bubble plot of metabolic pathway enrichment analysis.
Fig. 8: Bubble plot of metabolic pathway enrichment analysis.
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the 2022 Quanzhou “Guiding Science and Technology programme in the field of Health Care”. (2022NS047).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: He Wang, Dongmei Chen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Graduate School of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

    He Wang, Dongmei Chen, Huamei Li, Chunyan Fu, Lingyu Fang, Ruiquan Wang & Jinglin Xu

  2. Department of Neonatology, Quanzhou Maternity and Children’s Hospital, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China

    He Wang, Dongmei Chen, Huamei Li, Chunyan Fu, Lingyu Fang, Ruiquan Wang & Jinglin Xu

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Contributions

D.M., J.X., H.W. conceived and designed research, interpreted results of experiments, edited and revised manuscript. H.W., H.L., C.F., L.Y., and L.W. performed experiments, analyzed data, and drafted manuscript. J.X., H.W., and D.M. approved final version of manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jinglin Xu.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Quanzhou Children’s Hospital (Ethics No. 8, 2022), and all premature infants participating in the study have signed informed consent forms by their guardians.

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Wang, H., Chen, D., Li, H. et al. Bifidobacterium regulates premature infant gut metabolites, reducing serum inflammatory factors: a randomised controlled trial. Pediatr Res 97, 1171–1182 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-024-03552-2

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