Eczema linked with gut bacteria

Pediatric patients with eczema have a greater diversity of gut bacteria, according to results of a recent study.

Investigators from University of Helsinki, Finland, and University of Turku, Finland, monitored 15 infants with eczema and 19 health controls, analyzing fecal bacteria at 6 months and 18 months of age. Patients with eczema had a more diverse total gut bacteria than did the healthy patients at 18 months.

“At this age, healthy children harbored threefold greater amount of members of the Bacteroidetes,” study authors wrote.

The gut bacteria of pediatric patients with eczema had higher levels of Clostridium clusters IV and XIVa, which are usually abundance in adults, researchers noted.

“A diverse and adult-type microbiota in early childhood is associated with eczema and it may contribute to the perpetuation of eczema,” the authors concluded.

The study was published in BMC Microbiology.