Duodenal Microbiota in Stunted Undernourished Children with Enteropathy

To the Editor: Although the study by Chen et al. (July 23 issue) 1 is commendable, the claim of a causal role for microbiota in environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is unsubstantiated. There is no appropriate human control group, and the assignment of causality derives from questionable results in an animal model. The prepubertal age of the animals 2 was not comparable to the age of the children (approximately 18 months), with missing data including the total number of animals tested and the number of tests performed. Information on whether experimental replication was achieved was not furnished. The rationale for the microbiota dose . . .