Researchers identify ‘microbe signature’ found to be in infants who went on to develop disease in childhood or adolescence
Bacteria in the gut of one-year-old infants could be used to predict their chances of developing type 1 diabetes in later life, scientists have announced. The disease most often occurs in children and adolescents and is triggered by the body’s immune system when it attacks and destroys insulin-making cells in the pancreas.
“Our findings indicate that the gut of infants who go on to develop type 1 diabetes is notably different from healthy babies, and that several microbial biomarkers associated with future disease may be present as early as one year,” said the co-lead author of the study, Dr Malin Bélteky of the Crown Princess Victoria’s Children’s Hospital, Linköping, Sweden.
