10 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The MiLC trial is a randomized control trial of two different breast pump set-ups: mother's own and sterile. The objective of this trial is to investigate the bacterial composition of human milk pumped and stored in "real-life" conditions. To meet this objective, lactating mothers will fully express breast milk from one breast on two consecutive pumping sessions at home, once with the participant's own pumps and collection kits (own pump set-up) and once with a hospital-grade pump and disposable, sterile collection kits (sterile pump set-up). Randomization will be used to determine which pump participants use first. From the total volume of milk pumped during each pumping session, the researchers will collect 1 oz. Milk from both pumps will be stored at home and sampled on days 0, 2, 4, and 30 after expression for analysis of its bacterial composition.
Early nutrition critically influences growth, neurodevelopment and morbidity among infants born of very low birth weight (VLBW), but current one-size-fits-all feeding regimes do not optimally support these vulnerable infants. There is increasing interest in "precision nutrition" approaches, but it is unclear which Human Milk (HM) components require personalized adjustment of doses. Previous efforts have focused on macronutrients, but HM also contains essential micronutrients as well as non-nutrient bioactive components that shape the gut microbiome. Further, it is unclear if or how parental factors (e.g. body mass index, diet) and infant factors (e.g. genetics, gut microbiota, sex, acuity) influence relationships between early nutrition and growth, neurodevelopment and morbidity. Understanding these complex relationships is paramount to developing effective personalized HM feeding strategies for VLBW infants. This is the overarching goal of the proposed Optimizing Nutrition and Milk (Opti-NuM) Project. The Opti-NuM Project brings together two established research platforms with complementary expertise and resources: 1) the MaxiMoM Program\* with its clinically embedded translational neonatal feeding trial network in Toronto (Dr. Deborah O'Connor, Dr. Sharon Unger) and 2) the International Milk Composition (IMiC) Consortium, a world-renowned multidisciplinary network of HM researchers and data scientists collaborating to understand how the myriad of HM components contribute "as a whole" to infant growth and development, using systems biology and machine learning approaches. Members of the IMiC Corsortium that will work with on this study are located at the University of Manitoba (Dr. Meghan Azad), University of California (Dr. Lars Bode) and Stanford (Dr. Nima Aghaeepour).
This study will explore the effects of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between mothers and their babies on the infant intestinal microbiome, the maternal skin microbiome and the breast milk microbiome. This will be accomplished by administering an intervention education session to one group and a placebo education session to the second group in order to influence the magnitude of total SSC defined by the frequency and duration of contact time between the two groups.
This study aims to evaluate whether probiotics can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome in patients receiving prophylactic antibiotics during elective orthopedic surgery. Antibiotics, while effective in preventing infections, can disrupt the balance of gut bacteria, leading to dysbiosis. The study hypothesizes that the use of probiotics during the perioperative period can prevent or reduce this disruption, supporting gut health and overall well-being. The research seeks to answer whether combining probiotics with routine antibiotic prophylaxis can preserve gut microbiome balance and improve patient outcomes.
More than 60,000 infants are born between 22 to 32 weeks gestation age annually in the US. Approximately 11% of them develop comorbidities. During NICU hospitalization, preterm infants inevitably endure early life toxic stress without adequate protective buffers. Early life toxic stress results in adverse epigenetic modifications of glucocorticoid-related genes and dysbiosis, impairing neurodevelopment. These adversities further exacerbate the risk of comorbidities and inappropriate brain development during sensitive periods of neuroplasticity. Adverse epigenetic modifications and dysbiosis may set a life-long trajectory of risk for chronic health conditions. It is a clinical and scientific priority to test an early NICU intervention to attenuate stress-related adverse epigenetic modifications and dysbiosis. Human milk influences the structure and relative abundance of healthy gut bacteria and neurodevelopment. Maternal nurturing, e.g., licking and grooming (in rodents), and breastfeeding and touch (in humans), promotes neurodevelopment, reduces stress, and reverses stress-related epigenetic modifications. The multisensory early oral administration of human milk (M-MILK) intervention is designed to provide an enjoyable and nurturing experience for infants, through a safe and consistent infant-guided provision of human milk droplets, given orally as early as 22 weeks postmenstrual age. M-MILK is implemented from day 3 of life, after every hands-on care, and during the beginning of a full gavage feeding. We propose the M-MILK pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT): a 2-group (N = 12, 6 per group), parallel, and longitudinal design in preterm infants who are born between 22 to 28 weeks gestational age. The aims of this pilot are to determine the feasibility and acceptability of the M-MILK intervention, recruitment, retention, and obtain data for sample size estimation. This study will advance nursing science and practice because it will inform our R01 RCT to examine the efficacy of M-MILK to attenuate adverse effects of early life toxic stress in preterm infants.
This study is a randomized, cross-over, dietary intervention research design comprising a 5-day run-in period, two 3-day dietary interventions, and a 2-day washout period. Participants (mother-offspring dyads) will be randomly assigned to order of interventions. Participants will be recruited as a convenience sample from mother-offspring dyads in the greater Moscow, Idaho and Boise, Idaho areas. The initial purpose of this study is to to learn more about the use of an allergen test strip to detect cow's milk and soy food allergen proteins in human milk, to identify soy and bovine-derived peptides in human milk after consumption of these foods, to explore the impact of maternal bovine milk and soy milk consumption on human milk and maternal/infant gastrointestinal microbiomes and to examine maternal stress during periods of dietary elimination and re-introductions periods.
This observational study is a sub-study of the MiLC Trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03123874). Our objective is to characterize the bacterial communities of women's breasts, hands, their pump and milk collection kit, and their babies' mouths among the participants of the MiLC Trial. As part of the original protocol, we collected swabs of each of these areas from each dyad before women pumped with their own pumps. By characterizing these communities, we can identify from where the bacteria in human milk (HM) originates, and determine whether pumping with mother's own pumps enriches the bacterial communities of HM compared to pumping with a sterile pump.
The impact of breastfeeding on the infant microbiome in vaginally and Cesarean delivered offspring from obese and normal weight mothers.
A study to compare growth, development of the intestinal bacterial environment, and other short term outcomes in groups of babies fed primarily their own mother's milk compared to those who receive primarily donor human milk. The investigators hypothesize that infants who receive primarily their own mother's milk will have better growth, a more diverse intestinal bacterial environment, and possibly some improved short term outcomes such as better feeding tolerance and lower rates of infection.
Extremely premature (BW\<1250g) infants are at high risk for morbidity and mortality. Own mother's colostrum (OMC) and milk (OMM) protect against neonatal morbidity and are rich in immune factors which may provide immunostimulatory effects when administered oropharyngeally to extremely premature infants during the first weeks of life. The investigators hypothesize that infants who receive oropharyngeal mother's colostrum and milk will have significantly lower rates of infection and improved health outcomes, compared to infants who receive a placebo.