A medical test initially researched for aging adults also could be helpful for premature babies, according to scientists with Texas AgriLife Research.
The procedure, which uses fecal samples rather than the oft-dreaded colonoscopy, was developed by Dr. Robert Chapkin and his colleagues, who have been studying the noninvasive technique at the genetic level for more than a decade.
"Babies have many, many intestinal conditions that can threaten their lives, such as necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC, in premature infants," said Chapkin, a nutritional scientist. "Our test, we believe, may have utility for determining a baby's risk, and then would allow a physician to take different strategies in order to abate or prevent the possibility of this life threatening disorder."
Necrotizing enterocolitis can be fatal, Chapkin noted, and it's very difficult to determine which babies in the premature baby intensive care unit are going to develop the disease.
The researchers examined the fecal samples of 20 healthy babies in collaborative research with clinicians at the University of Illinois-Urbana.
Just as in the original research, in which the scientists detected genetic fingerprints from adult stools as a predictor of colon cancer, the study with babies found that genetic markers in their stools could also provide a picture of medical condition of an individual baby's intestines.
The study used fecal samples from 10 human babies that were exclusively breast-fed and 10 human babies that were exclusively formula-fed, Chapkin said.
"I think that all doctors would agree that the breast is best. But why? What is in the breast milk? How does it affect developmental biology, why are infections and complications in the intestine lower in a breast-fed baby than a formula-fed baby?" Chapkin said. "The only way to deal with that is to have a molecular signature of the intestinal cells from that baby and to follow it over time."
The team was able to identify genetic signatures from each baby, noninvasively, he said. In other words, each baby's diaper was the source of the samples.
Though it is early in the research, Chapkin said, the scientists found genetic pathways that appear to be induced differently by the breast milk than by formula.
"This may unlock a gold mine, allowing us to understand how that little baby's intestine is changing and developing and whether or not that formula is meeting those needs," Chapkin said. "That would allow formula companies to further enrich their formulas with essential molecules so that the two worlds - breast milk and formula - look very similar at some point in time.
"We have a long way to go to validate these markers, but we show it's feasible, it can be done," Chapkin said. "We have genetic signatures that are different in these babies' intestines."
The finding comes on the heels of the long-term study of colon cancer. The team had created a way to "noninvasively assess the status of a human being's intestine," Chapkin noted.
Adults, who at age 50 have a higher risk for developing colon cancer, have to be anesthetized while their colons are probed.
"A colonoscopy is absolutely essential as part of a surveillance process to assess your risk (for colon cancer)," Chapkin said. "Yet, many people would rather avoid the test and run the risk of developing the disease or not catching the disease early, because that test is so distasteful and unappealing to the public."