About the Authors

Carole Rougé

Affiliation INRA UMR 1280, Physiologie des Adaptations Nutritionnelles, Université de Nantes, CRNH, Nantes, IMAD, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, France

Marie-José Butel

Affiliation EA 4065, Ecosystème Intestinal, Probiotiques, Antibiotiques, Faculté des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France

Hugues Piloquet

Affiliations INRA UMR 1280, Physiologie des Adaptations Nutritionnelles, Université de Nantes, CRNH, Nantes, IMAD, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, France, INSERM, CIC 0004, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hôpital Mère-et-Enfant, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, France

Laurent Ferraris

Affiliation EA 4065, Ecosystème Intestinal, Probiotiques, Antibiotiques, Faculté des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France

Arnaud Legrand

Affiliation INSERM, CIC 0004, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hôpital Mère-et-Enfant, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, France

Michel Vodovar

Affiliation Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Institut de Puériculture, Paris, France

Marcel Voyer

Affiliation Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Institut de Puériculture, Paris, France

Marie-France de la Cochetière

Affiliation EA 3826, Thérapeutiques Cliniques et Expérimentales des Maladies Infectieuses, Nantes, France

Dominique Darmaun

ddarmaun@chu-nantes.fr

Affiliation INRA UMR 1280, Physiologie des Adaptations Nutritionnelles, Université de Nantes, CRNH, Nantes, IMAD, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, France

Jean-Christophe Rozé

Affiliations INRA UMR 1280, Physiologie des Adaptations Nutritionnelles, Université de Nantes, CRNH, Nantes, IMAD, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, France, INSERM, CIC 0004, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hôpital Mère-et-Enfant, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, France

Competing Interests

1) Carole Rougé was the recipient of a doctoral research fellowship from Nestlé (Vers-chez-les-Blanc, Switzerland), 2) Carole Rougé, Jean-Christophe Rozé, Hugues Piloquet, and Dominique Darmaun have been included along with Nestlé in a patent application for the use of Probiotics in preterm infants, 3) Part of this work was supported by grants from: the Programme Hospitalier de Recherche Clinique (PHRC 2004) from the French Ministry of Health, and the Délégation à la Recherche Clinique (DRC 2004), CHU de Nantes. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policy on sharing data as detailed in the PLOS One guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MJB HP MV MV MFdlC DD JCR. Performed the experiments: CR MJB HP LF AL MV MV MFdlC JCR. Analyzed the data: CR MJB HP LF AL MV MV MFdlC DD JCR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LF AL. Wrote the paper: CR MJB HP MV MV MFdlC DD JCR.