Early-life immunological and microbial differences between East African and North European children
Nurminen, Noora; Fan, Yue-Mei; Kortekangas, Emma; Lin, Jake; Hallamaa, Lotta; Maleta, Kenneth; Lehto, Kirsi-Maarit; Laitinen, Olli H; Sinkkonen, Aki; Lempainen, Johanna; Toppari, Jorma; Veijola, Riitta; Kurppa, Kalle; Knip, Mikael; Ashorn, Ulla; Oikarinen, Sami; Ashorn, Per; Hyöty, Heikki (2026-03-03)
Springer
03.03.2026
Nurminen, N., Fan, Y.-M., Kortekangas, E., Lin, J., Hallamaa, L., Maleta, K., Lehto, K.-M., Laitinen, O. H., Sinkkonen, A., Lempainen, J., Toppari, J., Veijola, R., Kurppa, K., Knip, M., Ashorn, U., Oikarinen, S., Ashorn, P., & Hyöty, H. (2026). Early-life immunological and microbial differences between East African and North European children. Communications Medicine, 6(1), 216. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-026-01482-0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202603112094
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202603112094
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Background:
The urbanization of African populations adopting Westernized lifestyles might be connected to changes in microbial exposure and immune system activity that are harmful to health and increase the risk of non-communicable diseases, such as immune-mediated diseases. The study aims to compare microbial exposure, immune system markers, and gut microbiota between rural African and Westernized Northern European children to delineate whether there are differences present in these factors in early childhood.
Methods:
We compared innate immune cytokines in plasma (IL-10, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α) using Luminex, gut microbiota using 16S rRNA sequencing, and microbial infections using qPCR in early childhood longitudinal sample series of children from rural Africa (participants from the iLINS-DYAD-M study conducted in Malawi) and from Northern Europe (participants from the DIPP study conducted in Finland) to identify differences which could be associated with negative health outcomes in Westernized societies.
Results:
Here, we show that the levels of plasma cytokines and frequency of stool pathogen positivity are substantially higher in Malawian than in Finnish children and that some of the cytokines differ in their longitudinal pattern between the two groups. Also, the diversity and composition of gut microbiota differ between the groups at the age of 6 months and diverge more with increasing age.
Conclusions:
These results highlight the early emergence of differences in the immune system and gut microbiota between children living in extremities of the microbial exposure gradient. These differences add to the existing knowledge of possible factors contributing to increasing prevalence of chronic inflammatory diseases in African societies shifting towards more Westernized lifestyle.
Background:
The urbanization of African populations adopting Westernized lifestyles might be connected to changes in microbial exposure and immune system activity that are harmful to health and increase the risk of non-communicable diseases, such as immune-mediated diseases. The study aims to compare microbial exposure, immune system markers, and gut microbiota between rural African and Westernized Northern European children to delineate whether there are differences present in these factors in early childhood.
Methods:
We compared innate immune cytokines in plasma (IL-10, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α) using Luminex, gut microbiota using 16S rRNA sequencing, and microbial infections using qPCR in early childhood longitudinal sample series of children from rural Africa (participants from the iLINS-DYAD-M study conducted in Malawi) and from Northern Europe (participants from the DIPP study conducted in Finland) to identify differences which could be associated with negative health outcomes in Westernized societies.
Results:
Here, we show that the levels of plasma cytokines and frequency of stool pathogen positivity are substantially higher in Malawian than in Finnish children and that some of the cytokines differ in their longitudinal pattern between the two groups. Also, the diversity and composition of gut microbiota differ between the groups at the age of 6 months and diverge more with increasing age.
Conclusions:
These results highlight the early emergence of differences in the immune system and gut microbiota between children living in extremities of the microbial exposure gradient. These differences add to the existing knowledge of possible factors contributing to increasing prevalence of chronic inflammatory diseases in African societies shifting towards more Westernized lifestyle.
Kokoelmat
- Avoin saatavuus [42834]
Ellei muuten mainita, aineiston lisenssi on https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/