Gut Permeability and Microbiome in Preterm Infants

July 1, 2026 updated by: Sripriya Sundararajan, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Gut Permeability and Microbiome in Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Neonates.

NEC, a life-threatening, GI emergency characterized by increased IP, affects approximately 7 to 10% of preterm neonates, and typically occurs within 7 to 14 days of birth with mortality as high as 30-50%. NEC symptoms mainly involve GI dysfunction, such as abdominal distension and feeding intolerance, but the presentation can be non-specific with few warning signs. Current therapies may be invasive, including surgical interventions that are often ineffective due to the rapid progression of the disease. Prematurity is the greatest risk factor for development of NEC due to physiological immaturity of the GI tract and altered levels of the normal GI microbiota. Several studies suggest that the initiation of an intense systemic and local inflammatory cascade leads to intestinal necrosis . Antenatal exposure to infection/inflammation may predispose the developing intestinal mucosa to subsequent injury or dysregulated inflammatory responses. Previous studies have linked presence of amniotic fluid infection/elevated cytokines, cord blood cytokines, and umbilical cord inflammation with risk for NEC in preterm neonates. In a rat model of NEC, maternal prenatal exposure to microbial LPS led to increased frequency and severity of intestinal injury. Taken together, these observations suggest that intestinal injury may be initiated in utero and contributes to increased IP at birth in the preterm neonate. Many of the defense mechanisms present in the mature intestine, such as peristalsis and tight junctions between intestinal epithelial cells are decreased in an immature intestine, and thus bacteria normally confined to the intestinal lumen are able to reach systemic organs and tissues. Bacterial translocation triggers the activation of an exaggerated inflammatory response, which leads to further epithelial damage. Our analysis of the initial cohort of 43 preterm infants, and others' previous studies have shown that IP is high at birth in preterms (<33wk gestation) with a rapid maturation of the intestinal barrier over the first 2 weeks. However, in some infants, high IP persisted and/or recurred in association with altered levels of the normal microbiota (bacteria community composition). Specifically, the investigators observed that (1) rapid maturation of intestinal barrier function, characterized by decreased IP, correlates with increased microbial community diversity (Figure 1), and most outstandingly, the increased abundance of beneficial bacteria Clostridiales (Figure 2); (2) Clostridiales is highly transcriptionally active and co-active with the probiotic bacterium Bifidobacterium; (3) neonatal factors, including early introduction of breast milk, shorter period of antibiotic exposure, and later gestational age, favor the early colonization of the gut microbiota by members of Clostridiales and Bifidobacterium, which altogether are associated with improved intestinal barrier in preterm infants; (4) low Clostridiales spp. abundance (<5%) and early gestational age (<31.7wk) were identified to be the most discriminatory features for elevated IP by supervised learning scheme, reaching an accuracy of 86.1%. (5) Clostridiales and Bifidobacteriales are the most abundant bacteria groups in later stages (phase II/III at 6-18 months of age) as shown in Figure 2, suggesting a process of gaining prosperity of these two bacterial groups during intestine development after birth. Altogether our preliminary results suggest the early colonization of the natural occurring probiotics strains Clostridiales and Bifidobacterium strongly associate with rapid maturation of intestinal barrier function, and their measurement are highly promising for early detection and as potential nutritional supplement to prevent NEC in the high-risk preterm population. Investigators propose in this study to recruit additional 150 mother-infant dyads (justified in study size analysis in research design), to address our hypothesis that the two naturally occurring beneficial bacteria Clostridiales and Bifidobacterium are rapidly gaining prosperity during normal intestine development in association with improved barrier function measured by La/Rh ratio. This continuation of the initial study builds on the previous findings that identified commensal bacteria Clostridiales and Bifidobacterium species as a strong indicator to the lowered IP and rapid maturation of intestinal barrier, to substantiate measurement of these probiotic strains combined with associated neonatal factors to form an accurate, rapid detection of intestinal permeability abnormality. The investigators propose in this study to recruit additional 150 mother-infant dyads (justified in study size analysis in research design), to address our hypothesis that the two naturally occurring beneficial bacteria Clostridiales and Bifidobacterium are rapidly gaining prosperity during normal intestine development in association with improved barrier function measured by La/Rh ratio.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

150

Phase

  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

<5 days Gestational age 24-32 weeks

Exclusion Criteria:

Nonviable or planned withdrawal of care

  • Significant GI dysfunction (e.g. heme-positive stools, abdominal distension (girth >2 cm baseline), or bilious emesis/ aspirates.
  • Triplet or higher order multiple
  • Severe asphyxia
  • Lethal chromosome abnormalities
  • Cyanotic congenital heart disease
  • Intestinal atresia or perforation
  • Abdominal wall defects
  • Known galactosemia or other galactose intolerance

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Screening
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Lactulose-Rhamnose solution
Drug: measurement of intestinal permeability
Measure intestinal permeability by use of non-digestable sugars known to not cross the intestinal barrier in normal healthy intestinal tissue.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Measurement of intestinal permeability
Time Frame: 1 year
The study outcome measures will be intestinal permeability (quantitative) and leaky gut (binary). Increased levels of urine Lactulose/Rhamnose [La/Rh] ratio >0.05 will identify infants with increased intestinal permeability (IP).
1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Maryland, Baltimore

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Marcela Pasetti, PhD, University of Maryland

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

July 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 18, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 18, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 24, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 1, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HP-00110340
  • 125-10212000-M33003-TPPRGGRT-2 (Other Grant/Funding Number: University of Maryland School of Medicine)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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