# Dietary and microbial predictors of childhood obesity risk

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · 2020 · $436,344

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract: The first three years-of-life are critically important for establishing growth
trajectories and gut microbiota composition, both of which are influenced by diet and other environmental
factors. Obesity rates are increasing worldwide and infants who are formula-fed (FF) for the first 6 months of
life are ~2.5-times more likely to be obese at 2-years than breast-fed infants (BF); however, little data exists on
infants who are both BF and FF (CF). Gut microbial composition is a determinant of obesity risk and microbiota
differences exist between BF- vs. FF-fed infants, but less is known about the microbiota of CF infants. Human
milk oligosaccharides (HMO) and prebiotics are fermented to short chain fatty acids (SCFA), which signal to
the host through the free fatty acid receptors FFAR2 and FFAR3 to influence immune and metabolic function
and obesity risk. We have shown that the microbiota and SCFA composition differ between FF and BF infants
and that systems biology approaches that combine SCFA and FFAR-linked genes expression in exfoliated
intestinal epithelial cells discriminate BF from FF infants. However, it is unknown whether these factors directly
influence infant weight gain. The goal of this proposal is to determine how differences in dietary prebiotics
influence mutualistic host-microbe interactions in a longitudinal, prospective birth cohort of 440 children and to
relate those to infant growth trajectory and weight and body composition at age 3. Our central hypothesis is
that dietary HMO and prebiotics produce different microbiome and SCFA composition in HM, FF and CF
infants and that SCFA will mediate infant growth trajectories and body composition through interactions with
gut FFAR. The proposed experiments will use systems biology approaches to illuminate transgenomic cross-
talk between host exfoliated intestinal epithelial cells and the gut microbiota will provide mechanistic insight into
the molecular pathways underlying host-microbe interactions in the gut that are associated with infant weight
gain and body composition. Two specific aims will be undertaken to test our central hypothesis: 1) Determine
the impact of early nutrition on microbiota composition and short chain fatty acid composition and relate those
findings to growth trajectories in the first 3 years-of-life and BMI and body composition at age 3.; and 2)
Annotate host exfoliated epithelial cell transcriptome and bacterial metatranscriptome profiles and elucidate
host/commensal relationships focusing on FFAR-linked pathways and relate those findings to growth
trajectories in the first 3 years-of-life and BMI and body composition at age 3. Our team is ideally positioned to
undertake this research. Our pioneering noninvasive approach that simultaneously monitors gene expression
in exfoliated epithelial cells and gut microbiota of infants is highly innovative. This body of work is significant
because molecular biomarkers that define the relationshi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9892995
- **Project number:** 5R01DK107561-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert Stephen Chapkin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $436,344
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9892995

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9892995, Dietary and microbial predictors of childhood obesity risk (5R01DK107561-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9892995. Licensed CC0.

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