Supplementary Files
Keywords
mental dysontogenesis
polymerase chain reaction
Enteroflor Kiddy
Categories
Abstract
Introduction. Bifidobacteria are a key group of microorganisms in the colon of children. A decrease in their abundance in the colonic microbiota is associated with a number of somatic diseases, as well as mental dysontogenesis.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the frequency of detection, quantity and species composition of Bifidobacterium spp. in the colon microbiota of preschool children with mental dysontogenesis.
Materials and methods. The study included 157 healthy children and 81 children with MD, aged 4 to 7.8 years (Me = 5.8). Bifidobacteria were detected and quantified using real-time PCR (RT-PCR) using the Enteroflor Kiddy test. Statistical processing and data visualization were performed using R version 4.6.0.
Results. In children with MD, B. bifidum was less common (30.6 % vs. 45.7 %, p < 0.050), and the proportions of “adult” bifidobacteria (p = 0.043) and B. catenulatum (p = 0.017) were also reduced. The absolute quantities of these taxa did not differ between the groups.
Conclusion. In children with MD, the detection rate of B. bifidum and the relative proportion of B. catenulatum were reduced, whereas there were no differences at the level of the genus Bifidobacterium. The changes are qualitative in nature.
For citation: Likhachev IA, Voroshilina ES, Zornikov DL, Amineva PG, Sidenkova AP, Salamatova SA. Species composition of bifidobacteria in the colony of preschool children with mental dysontogenesis. USMU Medical Bulletin. 2026;11(2):e00216. (In Russ.). DOI: https://doi.org/10.52420/usmumb.11.2.e00216. EDN: https://elibrary.ru/SVTGSI.
Acknowledgments. The authors express their gratitude to Leonid V. Khayutin, General Director of Medical and Pharmaceutical Center “Garmoniya”, for the opportunity to conduct laboratory research at the center’s laboratory department.
Funding. The authors declare the absence of external funding for the study.
Conflict of interest. Ekaterina S. Voroshilina, Danila L. Zornikov are the editorial board members of USMU Medical Bulletin; they did not participate in reviewing the material, as well as in making a decision on its publication. The other authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethics statement. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the Ural State Medical University (No. 2 dated 23 May 2025). All patients gave voluntary informed consent to participate in the study and publish its results in an impersonal form. The study was conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as amended in 2024).
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Copyright © 2026 Likhachev I. A., Voroshilina E. S., Zornikov D. L., Amineva P. G., Sidenkova A. P., Salamatova S. A.