Growing up with microbes: Le French Gut Kids project

Among all we owe our mothers is a lifelong gift of health: the foundation of our gut microbiome. This vast community of billions of microorganisms – mainly bacteria – plays a central role in digestion, immunity and metabolism throughout life. During the first two yearsThis microbial core develops and stabilizes depending on factors such as breastfeeding, family environment, and exposure to pets or antibiotics.

Scientists have a good understanding of how the microbiome evolves in early life and again in adulthood. Thousands of studies have described how these microbial communities change over time and how such shifts relate to disease risk or even lifespan. But a black box remains: what happens to the gut microbiome between the ages of 3 and 18?

This is exactly the question that mentioned a new project Le French Gut Kids wants to answer. A large team of scientists plans to recruit 10,000 children and teenagers from all over France. Until 2029, they will scrutinize their lifestyles and ‘bellies’ to understand how the gut microbiota evolves between childhood and adulthood, and to identify markers that can help predict health trajectories and disease risks later in life.

“We are witnessing more illness and mental health problems in childhood and adolescence. At the same time, we are also seeing disorders in adults and their roots may lie in the very early years of life.”says Hervé Blottière, scientific leader of the project.

“Childhood is a very crucial period for building the microbiome that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. We want to capture the beginning of the story and answer questions such as the role of food, lifestyle and environment in gut diversity; how the microbiome is built from birth; how microbes are passed from parents to children; and how this all relates to several common diseases,” adds Blottiere.

Launched in November, the project builds on the 2022 Le French Gut initiative. Both initiatives are coordinated by INRAE ​​- the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment in France – in partnership with AP-HP (Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris) and supported by a 15-member consortium.

“We want to capture the beginning of the story and answer questions such as the role of food, lifestyle and environment in gut diversity; how the microbiome is built from birth; how microbes are passed from parents to children; and how it all relates to several common diseases.”

Another goal of the research is to make children and teenagers aware of the importance of the gut microbiome for health, and how to care for it, especially through diet. In this sense, educational materials have been developed for use in primary and secondary schools. There is also a podcast about bacteria, as well as videos, exhibitions and interactive digital content.

To understand the gut health of children and teens, participants are asked to complete questionnaires and send stool samples to a central laboratory. Recruitment is partly dependent on parents already involved with Le French Gut, which has registered 30,000 volunteers, mainly women between the ages of 30 and 70. Social media and influencers are also used, “a very powerful tool,” the researchers describe. Anyone interested can register via: https://lefrenchgut.fr/

One of the main challenges of the project will be to ensure a sample that truly represents French society, and not just people with higher education. Another challenge is managing and analyzing the enormous amount of data generated. “A huge amount of information will come from parents, children, metagenomics, health registries. We will need computational resources to work with it and ‘brain power’, from doctors to bioinformaticians, microbiologists or ecologists”, explains Patrick Veiga, scientific director of Le French Gut Kids Research Director of the MetaGenoPolis Unit at INRAE.

“At the end of the project, we want to offer society and policymakers tools that can have a real impact on public health,” says Veiga. These recommendations could include changes such as enriching school canteen menus with fiber-rich foods, polyphenols and yogurt, replacing less healthy options. The project also aims to develop tailored recommendations for specific subgroups of children.

“At the end of the project, we want to offer society and policymakers tools that can have a real impact on public health”

Researchers concerned with healthy aging often emphasize that it starts early in life – not at age 60. Le French Gut Kids’ ambition is to map health trajectories from an early age and, ideally, intervene when those trajectories point towards poorer outcomes. Veiga says it would be a dream to be able to detect and correct them at an early stage.