ArticleThe ISME journal2021
Key bacterial taxa and metabolic pathways affecting gut short-chain fatty acid profiles in early life.
Article in The ISME journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 203 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
203 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 300 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the impact of probiotics on immunotherapy effectiveness and antibiotic-mediated resistance in cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of Exercise on Gut Microbiota of Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2024Pooled it
- Breastfeeding Affects Concentration of Faecal Short Chain Fatty Acids During the First Year of Life: Results of the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- The impact of prophylactic azithromycin on the developing preterm gut microbiome and resistome.Gut microbes · 2026Trial
- Anti-inflammatory effects of Bifidobacterium infantis M-63 during the early postnatal period in term infants.Pediatric research · 2026Trial
- Effects of kefir on symptoms, sleep, and gut microbiota in children with ADHD: a randomised controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Improving immune-related health outcomes post-cesarean birth with a gut microbiome-based program: A randomized controlled trial.Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · 2025Trial
- Randomized study ofWorld journal of gastroenterology · 2025Trial
- An Extensively Hydrolyzed Formula Supplemented with Two Human Milk Oligosaccharides Modifies the Fecal Microbiome and Metabolome in Infants with Cow's Milk Protein Allergy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Trial
- Early Probiotic Supplementation of Healthy Term Infants withNutrients · 2023Trial
- Probiotic supplementation in neonates with congenital gastrointestinal surgical conditions: a pilot randomised controlled trial.Pediatric research · 2022Trial
- Orchestrating life's first community: molecular assembly by human milk oligosaccharides.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Early postnatal antibiotic-associated gut microbiota alterations might promote long-term lipid metabolism via brown adipose tissue metabolic programming.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Sibling factors associated with gut microbiota and fecal short-chain fatty acids in preschoolers.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Short-Chain Fatty Acids: Microbial Metabolites Driving Gut-Eye Axis Signaling.Comprehensive physiology · 2026Review
- The Gut Microbiota-Metabolite-Host Axis in Cardiometabolic Diseases: Bridging Bench to Bedside.Cardiovascular drugs and therapy · 2026Review
- From Diet to Dysbiosis: The Microbiome's Relationship to Eosinophilic Esophagitis.Current gastroenterology reports · 2026Review
- Intestinal-Bone Axis Mediated byMicroorganisms · 2026Review
- Dietary Fiber-Associated Differences in Gut Microbial Community Composition and Predicted Short-Chain Fatty Acid-Related Functional Potential: An In Silico Re-Analysis of 16S rRNA Data.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Human milk microbiome as a modulator of the early-life gut-brain axis: mechanisms and translational opportunities for neurodevelopment.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
143 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Infant gut microbiota development affects the host physiology throughout life, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are promising key metabolites mediating microbiota-host relationships. Here, we investigated dense longitudinally collected faecal samples from 12 subjects during the first 2 years (n = 1048) to identify early life gut SCFA patterns and their relationships with the microbiota. Our results revealed three distinct phases of progression in the SCFA profiles: early phase characterised by low acetate and high succinate, middle-phase characterised by high lactate and formate and late-phase characterised by high propionate and butyrate. Assessment of the SCFA-microbiota relationships revealed that faecal butyrate is associated with increased Clostridiales and breastfeeding cessation, and that diverse and personalised assemblage of Clostridiales species possessing the acetyl-CoA pathway play major roles in gut butyrate production. We also found an association between gut formate and some infant-type bifidobacterial species, and that human milk oligosaccharides (HMO)-derived fucose is the substrate for formate production during breastfeeding. We identified genes upregulated in fucose and fucosylated HMO utilisation in infant-type bifidobacteria. Notably, bifidobacteria showed interspecific and intraspecific variation in the gene repertoires, and cross-feeding of fucose contributed to gut formate production. This study provides an insight into early life SCFA-microbiota relationships, which is an important step for developing strategies for modulating lifelong health.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.