Abstract：
The gut microbiota is closely related to infant health. However, the impact of environmental factors on the gut microbiota has not been widely investigated, particularly in vulnerable populations such as infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This study investigated the association between exposure to 12 metals and the composition of the gut microbiota in infants admitted to the NICU. Metal concentrations were determined in serum samples obtained from 107 infants admitted to the NICU at Hunan Children\'s hospital, China. Gut microbiota data were derived from 16S rRNA sequencing using stool samples. Generalized linear regression (GLR) models and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) analyses were used to estimate the associations between metals and both alpha-diversity indices and bacterial taxa. The GLR models showed that tin correlated negatively with the Shannon index (β = -0.55, 95% conficence interval [CI]: -0.79, -0.30, PFDR< 0.001) and positively with the Simpson index (β = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.39, PFDR< 0.001). The BKMR analysis yielded similar results, showing that tin had the largest posterior inclusion probability for both the Shannon (0.986) and the Simpson (0.796) indices. Tin, cadmium, mercury, lead, and thallium were associated with changes in one or more taxa at the genus level. The BKMR analysis also revealed a negative correlation between metal mixtures and Clostridium_sensu_stricto, and tin contibuted mostly to the negative correlation. Early postnatal exposure to metals were associated with differences in the microbiome among infants admitted to the NICU. However, as the study was cross-sectional, these relationships must be confirmed in further studies.
摘要：
肠道菌群与婴儿健康密切相关。然而,环境因素对肠道菌群的影响尚未得到广泛研究，特别是在弱势人群中，例如新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）的婴儿。这项研究调查了进入NICU的婴儿暴露于12种金属与肠道微生物群组成之间的关系。从湖南省儿童医院NICU收治的107名婴儿的血清样本中测定金属浓度，中国。肠道微生物群数据来自使用粪便样品的16SrRNA测序。使用广义线性回归（GLR）模型和贝叶斯核机回归（BKMR）分析来估计金属与α多样性指数和细菌分类群之间的关联。GLR模型显示，锡与Shannon指数呈负相关（β=-0.55，95％确定区间[CI]：-0.79，-0.30，PFDR<0.001），与辛普森指数呈正相关（β=0.26，95％CI：0.13，0.39，PFDR<0.001）。BKMR分析产生了类似的结果，显示锡在Shannon（0.986）和Simpson（0.796）指数中具有最大的后验包涵概率。锡，镉,水银,铅,和铊在属水平上与一个或多个分类单元的变化有关。BKMR分析还揭示了金属混合物与严格梭菌之间的负相关，和锡主要与负相关。出生后早期接触金属与入住NICU的婴儿的微生物组差异有关。然而,由于这项研究是横断面的，这些关系必须在进一步的研究中得到证实。
