Gut Microbiome and Children’s Health

Dear Colleagues,

The role of the gut microbiome in health and disease reveals the potential link between the gut microbiome composition and diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, and celiac disease in humans. In the last few years, research has confirmed such a link, and several past and ongoing studies and clinical trials have aimed at exploring this relationship. Studies on the gut microbiota and host relationship have focused mostly on the adult population due to the ease of recruitment and the availability of subjects, while the recruitment of children in clinical trials or research studies is challenging. Children or young adults are considered an understudied population, although several gastrointestinal diseases develop in childhood and progress with age. This justifies the necessity of exploring the gut microbiome in children to address the problem before it worsens.  For example, children with functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) showed a bacterial dysbiosis in gut microbiota at the phyla and genus levels compared to an age-matched healthy control group. The severity of FAPDs was found to correlate with some bacterial taxa in the collected stool samples. To better understand the impact of gut microbiota alterations in children or young adults, we propose this Special Issue of Microorganisms, which will cover gut microbiome alterations in different gastrointestinal diseases, bacterial dysbiosis in the gut microbiome of children, the role of different interventions in improving or altering gut microbiome composition, and the brain-gut axis. The interventions studied can include diet modifications, medications, integrative and complementary medicine approaches, pre- and probiotics consumption, and others. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and clinical trials.

Dr. Bassam Abomoelak
Dr. Miguel Saps
Guest Editors

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