Objective: It is believed that gut microbiota alteration leads to both intestinal and non-intestinal diseases in children. Since infants inherit maternal microbiota during pregnancy and lactation, recent studies suggest that changes in maternal microbiota can cause immune disorders as well. This systematic review was designed to assess the association between the child and mother's gut microbiome and allergy development in childhood.
Data sources: In this systematic review, international databases including PubMed, Scopus, and ISI/WOS were searched until January 2023 to identify relevant studies.
Study selections: Observational studies that analyzed infant or maternal stool microbiome and their association with allergy development in children were included in this study. Data extraction and quality assessment of the included studies were independently conducted by two researchers.
Results: Of the 1694 papers evaluated, 21 studies examined neonate gut microbiome by analyzing stool samples and six studies examined maternal gut microbiota. A total of 5319 participants were included in this study. Asthma followed by eczema and dermatitis were the most common allergy disorders among children. Urbanization caused a lack of diversity in the bacterial microbiota as well as lower levels of Bifidobacterium and Lachnospira associated with a higher risk of allergy. In contrast, higher levels of Roseburia and Flavonifractor were associated with lower allergy risk.
Conclusions: This systematic review shows that gut microbiota may be associated with allergy development. Further studies are required to provide a definitive answer.
Keywords: Allergy; asthma; eczema; infant; microbiota.