Natural environments in the urban context and gut microbiota in infants

Nielsen, Charlene C.; Gascón, Mireia; Osornio-Vargas, Álvaro; Shier, Catherine; Guttman, David S.; Becker, Allan B.; Azad, Meghan B.; Sears, Malcolm R.; Lefebvre, Diana L.; Moraes, Theo J.; Turvey, Stuart E.; Subbarao, Padmaja; Takaro, Tim K.; Brook, Jeffrey R.; Scott, James A.; Mandhane, Piush J.; Tun, Hein Min; Kozyrskyj, Anita L.

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2020.105881

Cited by 36 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…According to Wilson's biophilia theory 20 , natural outdoor environments and greenness surrounding environments have been shown to be associated with positive health outcomes 21 , including improved psychological wellbeing 22 , and decreased the risk of psychiatric disorders 23 , and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms 24 . The increased exposure to natural environments and animals is an important determinant of individual gut microbiome 25,26 , skin microbiome 27 and salivary microbiome composition 28 . Thus, exposing children to a higher bacterial load in the natural environment by encouraging them to play outside may be a reasonable way to increase the diversity of their intestinal microbiota 19 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Impact of outdoor nature-related activities on gut microbiota, fecal serotonin, and perceived stress in preschool children: the Play&Grow randomized controlled trial

Sobko

Liang

Cheng

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Due to rapid urbanization, children today have fewer opportunities to interact with nature and this may result in a greater risk for developing stress and depression. Outdoor nature-related activities can enhance general well-being. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully delineated. Here we recruited 54 preschool children to participate in a 10-week structured nature-related “Play&Grow” program. Following the intervention, children were assessed for connectedness to nature and perceived stress levels using validated questionnaires. Moreover, fecal serotonin level and gut microbiota profiles were measured by ELISA and 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing, respectively. Children were significantly more connected to nature after the intervention. Their gut microbiota altered, especially by modulating the abundance of Roseburia and the fecal-serotonin level. Moreover, we also observed a reduction in the overall perceived stress, particularly in the frequency of anger among these children. This study is the first to demonstrate the impact of nature-related activities on gut microbiota, fecal serotonin and psychosocial behaviour of preschool children. However, further mechanistic studies are needed to confirm the functional role of gut microbiota in the association between connectedness to nature and improved psychosocial behavior.

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confidence: 99%

Impact of outdoor nature-related activities on gut microbiota, fecal serotonin, and perceived stress in preschool children: the Play&Grow randomized controlled trial

Sobko

Liang

Cheng

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Much support for this “hygiene hypothesis” comes from experimental studies regarding helminth and parasite colonization; however, these organisms are not typically captured in microbiome studies. Given the impact of the early-life environment on individual microbiome development and subsequent health outcomes ( Nielsen et al, 2020 ; Boutin et al, 2021 ), the role of commensal bacteria in immune development and sensitization should not be ignored. Meta-omic cohort studies can provide insights into the mechanisms of aberrant immune response in disease and identify key metabolites whose role in immune development warrants further study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbiome-Mediated Immune Signaling in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Colorectal Cancer: Support From Meta-omics Data

Pratt

Forbes

Knox

et al. 2021

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

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Chronic intestinal inflammation and microbial dysbiosis are hallmarks of colorectal cancer (CRC) and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. However, the mechanistic relationship between gut dysbiosis and disease has not yet been fully characterized. Although the “trigger” of intestinal inflammation remains unknown, a wealth of evidence supports the role of the gut microbiome as a mutualistic pseudo-organ that significantly influences intestinal homeostasis and is capable of regulating host immunity. In recent years, culture-independent methods for assessing microbial communities as a whole (termed meta-omics) have grown beyond taxonomic identification and genome characterization (metagenomics) into new fields of research that collectively expand our knowledge of microbiomes. Metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, and metabolomics are meta-omics techniques that aim to describe and quantify the functional activity of the gut microbiome. Uncovering microbial metabolic contributions in the context of IBD and CRC using these approaches provides insight into how the metabolic microenvironment of the GI tract shapes microbial community structure and how the microbiome, in turn, influences the surrounding ecosystem. Immunological studies in germ-free and wild-type mice have described several host-microbiome interactions that may play a role in autoinflammation. Chronic colitis is a precursor to CRC, and changes in the gut microbiome may be an important link triggering the neoplastic process in chronic colitis. In this review, we describe several microbiome-mediated mechanisms of host immune signaling, such as short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and bile acid metabolism, inflammasome activation, and cytokine regulation in the context of IBD and CRC, and discuss the supporting role for these mechanisms by meta-omics data.

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“…Living with the environment: The biodiversity hypothesis explains that the frequent contact of people with the natural environment can increase the diversity in the human microbiome, promote the immune balance and protect the individual from allergy and inflammation [ 75 ]. For instance, people living in urban and rural have different degrees of exposure to microorganisms from the soil, nature, water, and biomasses used in agriculture or livestock, which is associated with a difference in their skin [ 38 ] and gut microbiome [ 76 ]. In line with this, Hanski and collaborators [ 77 ] established the relation between exposure to the environment and skin atopy.…”

Section: Factors Associated With Microbial Diversity In the Humanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and Human Microbiome for Health

Panthee

Gyawali

Panthee³

et al. 2022

Life

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Microorganisms are an essential part of life on the earth and can exist in association with virtually any living thing. The environmental microbiome is much more diverse than the human microbiome. It is reported that most microbes existing in the environment are difficult to culture in the laboratory. Whereas both pathogenic and beneficial microbes may be prevailing in the environment, the human body can have three categories of microbes- beneficial, pathogenic, and opportunistic pathogenic. With at least 10-fold more cells than human cells, microbes as normal flora are critical for human survival. The microbes present in the human body play a crucial role in maintaining human health, and the environmental microbiome influences the human microbiome makeup. The interaction between the environmental and human microbiome highly influences human health, however it is poorly understood. In addition, as an established infection is associated with health-seeking behavior, a large number of studies have focused on the transmission and dynamics of infectious microorganisms than the noninfectious or beneficial ones. This review will summarize how the interaction between the environmental and human microbiome affects human health and identify approaches that might be beneficial for humans to improve health by being exposed to the natural environment.

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Natural environments in the urban context and gut microbiota in infants

Cited by 36 publications

References 51 publications

Impact of outdoor nature-related activities on gut microbiota, fecal serotonin, and perceived stress in preschool children: the Play&Grow randomized controlled trial

Impact of outdoor nature-related activities on gut microbiota, fecal serotonin, and perceived stress in preschool children: the Play&Grow randomized controlled trial

Microbiome-Mediated Immune Signaling in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Colorectal Cancer: Support From Meta-omics Data

Environmental and Human Microbiome for Health

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