title: Bacterial munch for infants: potential pediatric therapeutic interventions of probiotics.
abstract: Probiotics are viable microorganisms with the capacity to alter the gastrointestinal microbiota of the host. The recent scientific advancements and development of probiotic formulations have rekindled the importance of these clinical interpretations, underlining the starring role of the gut flora in host metabolism, defense and immune regulation. Despite encouraging preliminary results from randomized clinical trials of probiotics for various clinical conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, necrotizing enterocolitis, gastroenteritis, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, infantile colic, and improvement of digestion and immune function, further evidence is needed to determine the reproducibility of the findings and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. In this review, we have considered the postnatal development of gut flora and appraised the role of probiotics in health and disease condition among infants.
authors.affiliation: College of Allied Health Professionals, Directorate of Medical Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.|Department of Microbiology, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Mohsin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khurshid
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Bilal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aslam
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad Atif
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nisar
authors.affiliation: Health Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Rubab
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Akbar
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Hazir
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, PO Box 2457, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdul Arif
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad Hidayat
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rasool
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D001691:Biological Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D064307:Microbiota; D019936:Probiotics / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Bifidobacteria; clinical trials; metagenome; microbiota; necrotizing enterocolitis