Features of the microbial landscape of the stomach in children, feeding through the gastrostomy or nasogastric tube

BACKGROUND: In children with dysphagia, an increase in body weight is observed after the placement of a feeding tube, however, subsequently, a regression of body weight is noted, symptoms of an erosive and ulcerative lesion of the gastrointestinal tract appear. AIM: To identify the features of the gastric microbiome in children fed through a gastrostomy or a tube. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A study of aspirates of gastric contents in 21 patients was carried out using metagenomic sequencing. The participants were divided into 2 groups: group 1 11 children fed through the gastrostomy for less than 1 year; group 2 10 children, fed through the gastrostomy for more than 1 year. RESULTS: In group 1, from 8 to 19 phyla were identified, median 12.0. In the second group from 4 to 13, median 7.5, the differences are statistically significant (p 0.05). The samples of both groups were dominated by the phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, Actinobacteria, Fusobacteria. The number of representatives of the Bacteroidia and Fusobacteriia classes was significantly reduced in patients with long-term nutrition through the gastrostomy. At the same time, a small number of classes were observed in patients with a gastrostomy in the stomach for about 80 months, as well as in patients with identified gastric pathology. There were about 66 genera for each specimen. At the same time, in children fed through a gastrostomy for less than 1 year, the median is 69.5 OTU. In children fed through a gastrostomy for more than 1 year, even with its regular replacement, the median is significantly less 41 OTU. A significant decrease in microbial biodiversity was revealed with an increase in the standing time of the gastrostomy, the median value of the Shannon index in group 1 was 1.95, in group 2 1.69 (p 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with a long stay of the feeding tube in the stomach, the number of anti-inflammatory symbionts of the genus Prevotella, Parabacteroides is reduced. The contamination of the stomach with Helicobacter pylori was 50%, which further increased the predisposition of the gastric mucosa to inflammation.