The Human Microbiome in Early Life: Implications to Health and Disease

The Human Microbiome in Early Life: Implications to Health and Disease presents recent research advances that have highlighted the significance of early life, possibly beginning before birth, in the establishment of both the microbiome and its role in health and disease. The book reviews current knowledge on the origins of the human microbiota in early life, presents exposures which may disturb normal microbial colonization, and covers their implications to the risk of disease. Finally, emerging means to modify the early human microbiome to improve health are discussed.

Examines the timeline of the human microbiome, from before conception to infancy, with an emphasis on clinical implicationsEvaluates the effort to understand not only the composition but also the origin of the microbiomeProves the emerging means to modify the human microbiome and particularly ‘the first 1000 days of life’ improve human health and prevent diseaseGenerates resources to facilitate characterization of the human microbiota to further our understanding of how the microbiome impacts human health and disease

I. PREGNANCY AND FETAL LIFE 1. The microbiome in a healthy pregnancy 2. The microbiome and pregnancy complications 3. Microbial signatures of preterm birth 4. Prenatal origins of the infant gut microbiome

II. BIRTH - ENTERING THE WORLD DOMINATED BY MICROBES 5. Mode of delivery, the infant microbiome, and the risk of disease 6. Early-life antibiotic exposure, the gut microbiome, and disease in later life 7. The intestinal microbiome of preterm infants

III. INFANCY - ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MICROBIOME AND HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT 8. The compositional development of the microbiome in early life 9. Microbes, human milk, and prebiotics 10. The early gut microbiome and the risk of chronic disease

IV. MODIFYING EARLY MICROBIAL CONTACT 11. Postbiotics: defining the impact of inactivated microbes and their metabolites on promotion of health 12. Modification of the gut microbiome in an attempt to reduce the risk of child disease: clinical data from prenatal interventions 13. Clinical data from postnatal interventions