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Review
. 2023 Jan 27;24(3):2471.
doi: 10.3390/ijms24032471.

Necrotizing Enterocolitis: The Role of Hypoxia, Gut Microbiome, and Microbial Metabolites

Aleksandra Kaplina  1 , Svetlana Kononova  2 , Ekaterina Zaikova  3 , Tatiana Pervunina  4 , Natalia Petrova  1 , Stanislav Sitkin  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Necrotizing Enterocolitis: The Role of Hypoxia, Gut Microbiome, and Microbial Metabolites

Aleksandra Kaplina et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a life-threatening disease that predominantly affects very low birth weight preterm infants. Development of NEC in preterm infants is accompanied by high mortality. Surgical treatment of NEC can be complicated by short bowel syndrome, intestinal failure, parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease, and neurodevelopmental delay. Issues surrounding pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of NEC remain unclear. This review summarizes data on prenatal risk factors for NEC, the role of pre-eclampsia, and intrauterine growth retardation in the pathogenesis of NEC. The role of hypoxia in NEC is discussed. Recent data on the role of the intestinal microbiome in the development of NEC, and features of the metabolome that can serve as potential biomarkers, are presented. The Pseudomonadota phylum is known to be associated with NEC in preterm neonates, and the role of other bacteria and their metabolites in NEC pathogenesis is also discussed. The most promising approaches for preventing and treating NEC are summarized.

Keywords: NEC; fucose; glyco-redox; gut microbiome; hypoxia; microbial metabolites; necrotizing enterocolitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Features of maternal intestinal microbiome in preeclampsia and in premature birth. Abbreviations: PL—phylum level; GL/SL—genus level/species level; NS—not significant; (?)—research data are controversial. Taxa associated with clinical characteristics (according to research data) are in bold. This figure has been designed using assets from Freepik.com (accessed on 24 December 2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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