Infant Microbiota Restoration With Maternal Microbes

NCT ID: NCT07212361

Last Updated: 2025-10-08

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

100 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-07-17

Study Completion Date

2035-12-31

Brief Summary

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The goal of this clinical trial is to test the ability of different bacterial products in restoring natural gut microbiota in C-section born infants. The main question it aims to answer is:

Do maternally derived strains of bacteria perform better than commercially available probiotic strains in restoring the gut microbiota of C-section born infants? Researchers will compare the gut microbiota of treated infants to that of untreated C-section born infants and untreated vaginally born infants to see if the bacterial treatments cause the microbiota to resemble that of vaginally born infants.

Participants will be given a bacterial product orally once daily for either one or four weeks and be asked to collect faecal, urine and saliva samples.

Detailed Description

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The gut microbiota has long-term effects on host health especially in early life. Infants receive maternal faecal microbes during vaginal birth, which is prevented by C-section. C-section is associated with increased risk of many chronic diseases, likely because of the disturbed gut microbiota. We recently showed the effectiveness of a faecal microbiota transplant from the infant's own mother in restoring normal gut microbiota in C-section born infants. However, FMT contains a large diversity of unknown microbes, some of which may pose a risk of dangerous infection. A safe and widely applicable infant microbiota restoration method is urgently needed. In this project, we develop a selective microbiota transplant from mother to infant and test its efficacy and safety in a clinical trial. The work is conducted in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki.

Conditions

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Infant, Newborn Gut -Microbiota Gut Dysbiosis Cesarean Delivery Affecting Newborn Cesarean Section Vaginal Delivery Gastrointestinal Microbiota Microbiota, Cesarean Section, Probiotics, Dysbiosis Feces Delivery, Obstetric Microbiota Microbiology Humans Pregnancy Neonate

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Participants Caregivers

Study Groups

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Probiotic

The infants will receive a mixture of probiotic strains currently on the market and with known safety profiles and beneficial effects on infant gut microbiota.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Probiotic

Intervention Type DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Specific infant-adapted commercially available strains or strains isolated from the infant's mother.

Vaginal delivery

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Maternal bacteria set 1

The infants will receive a micture of bacteria isolated from a fecal sample of the infants' own mother.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Probiotic

Intervention Type DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Specific infant-adapted commercially available strains or strains isolated from the infant's mother.

Maternal bacteria set 2

The infants will receive a mixture of bacterial species with increased diversity isolated from the mother's sample.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Probiotic

Intervention Type DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Specific infant-adapted commercially available strains or strains isolated from the infant's mother.

Maternal bacteria set 3

The infants will receive a mixture of bacterial strains isolated from other infants' and/or mothers' samples to test whether bacteria from an unrelated donor have different effects compared to maternal bacteria. In this group all infants will receive the same standardised mixture of bacterial strains.

Group Type OTHER

Probiotic

Intervention Type DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Specific infant-adapted commercially available strains or strains isolated from the infant's mother.

Placebo

C-section born infants given a placebo treatment.

Group Type PLACEBO_COMPARATOR

Placebo

Intervention Type OTHER

Infant formula without bacteria.

Interventions

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Probiotic

Specific infant-adapted commercially available strains or strains isolated from the infant's mother.

Intervention Type DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Placebo

Infant formula without bacteria.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Healthy mother and healthy pregnancy
* Singleton pregnancy,
* Mothers who speak Finnish or Swedish
* Mothers who are planning to breastfeed or give breastmilk by bottle to the infant
* Infants who are expected to be healthy and who will not require BCG vaccination.

Exclusion Criteria

* Participants who lives further than a 2-hour drive from Meilahti, Helsinki, Finland
* Mothers who are not planning to breastfeed or feed breastmilk by bottle to the infant
* Mothers who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia or who have been receiving antibiotics during the pregnancy or delivery
* Premature infants born before the pregnancy week 37
* Infants, who are born by urgent cesarean section or emergency cesarean section
* Infants, who receive antibiotics during the first week of life
* Infants, who are diagnosed with a disease, congenital anomaly or who receive less than 9 Apgar points at 5 minutes.
* Infants, who receive BCG-vaccine
Maximum Eligible Age

50 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Helsinki University Central Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

University of Helsinki

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Katri Korpela

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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Helsinki University Hospital

Helsinki, , Finland

Site Status RECRUITING

University of Helsinki

Helsinki, , Finland

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Finland

Central Contacts

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Katri E Korpela, PhD

Role: CONTACT

+358504486369

Marjo Metsäranta, MD, PhD

Role: CONTACT

Facility Contacts

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Marjo Metsäranta, MD, PhD

Role: primary

+358504272487

Katri E Korpela, PhD

Role: primary

+358504486369

Other Identifiers

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HUS/617/2025/71

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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