Table 1.

Studies of the gut microbiome in malnourished children

Location of study	Age of subjects	Number and nutritional status of subjects	Comments	Reference
India (Slum in Kolkota)	16 months	2: one “malnourished” one “healthy”	No z scores provided Both from same slum Malnourished child had higher relative abundance of Campylobacter	Gupta et al 2011
Bangladesh	24–36 months	14: 7 with z scores <70% of WHO median 7 at 100%	Single sample per subject Malnourished children were from slum Healthy children were of moderate to high economic status with better diet	Monira et al 2011
Malawi	7–24 months	44: 9 well-nourished twin pairs 13 twin pairs discordant for kwashiorkor (SAM)	Metagenomic analysis on fecal samples pre-diagnosis of kwashiorkor, at time of diagnosis, while on RUTF and after resumption of Malawi diet	Smith et al 2013
India (Kolkota)	5–60 months	20: 6 “apparently healthy” 8 “borderline malnourished” 6 “severely malnourished”	Metagenomic analysis on fecal samples Identified “core” set of 23 genera whose abundance could distinguish between the three nutritional status groups	Ghosh et al 2014
Bangladesh (Slum in Mirpur)	Healthy 0–24 months SAM 0–20 months	114: 50 healthy children monthly from 1–24 months 64 children with SAM	Metagenomic analysis on fecal samples of healthy children and hospitalized children with SAM before during and after RUTF	Subramaniam et al 2014
India (Slum in Vellore)	every 3 months from 3–24 months	20: 10 low birth weight, persistent stunting 10 normal birth weight, no stunting	Subjects all from same slum z scores and microbiota monitored over study period	Dinh et al unpublished