Credit: © Seki et al., 2021
Seki et al. have established a comprehensive, time-resolved profile of microbiota, immune, and neurophysiological development in premature infants. Their research linked early-life microbiome establishment to immunological and neurological development, identifying candidate biomarkers of perinatal brain injury. In summary (left), their results showed that pro-inflammatory T cell response correlates with suppressed electro-cortical maturation. γδ T cells seemed to have central implications for this suppression and the pathogenesis of brain injury. Furthermore, Klebsiella overgrowth in the gastrointestinal tract was highly predictive for brain damage. To the right, manifestations of such brain injuries are shown as representative cranial magnetic resonance (cMRI) images at term-equivalent age for intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH; upper right corner) and periventricular leukomalacia (PVL, lower right corner).