Microbiome of mother's vagina may affect infant mortality risk and
baby's development, study in mice shows

Date:
January 27, 2022
Source:
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Summary:
A new study in mice showed that an unhealthy vaginal microbiome in
pregnant mothers in combination with an unhealthy diet contributed
to increased pup deaths and altered development in the surviving
babies. The findings suggest that changes in a mother's diet, such
as more fruits and vegetables, may counteract unhealthy microbiome
effects in disadvantaged groups.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study in mice from University of Maryland School of Medicine
researchers showed that an unhealthy vaginal microbiome in pregnant
mothers in combination with an unhealthy diet contributed to increased
pup deaths and altered development in the surviving babies.


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The researchers offset these deaths from the unhealthy vaginal microbiome
by giving the mothers a healthier diet. The researchers say their findings could imply that simple interventions, such as access to a diet rich in
fiber- containing fruits and vegetables, may help counteract some of the harmful effects on human babies that an unhealthy microbiome may impart -- particularly in vulnerable populations.

Their findings were published on November 1, 2021, in Nature
Communications.

When babies pass through the birth canal, they are exposed to their
mother's vaginal microbiome, where their skin is coated and they ingest
their first microbes outside the sterile womb.

Women with certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes or high blood
pressure, and those in low-resourced neighborhoods with limited access to healthcare and nutrition, are more at risk of having an unhealthy vaginal microbiome. These unhealthy vagina microbiomes have too many different
kinds of bacteria, viruses, or yeast which, unlike diversity in the gut,
is a bad thing in the vagina, increasing the likelihood for infections.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black
women in the U.S. have infant mortality rates 2.3 times higher than
white women, and this is independent of education and income levels.



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"We know what is healthy for mom is healthy for baby's brain development,
and on the flip side stress contributes to disease risk," said Tracy Bale,
PhD, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of
Medicine and Director of the Center for Epigenetic Research in Child
Health & Brain Development. "We wanted to identify biological factors
that predict these negative health outcomes and determine how each one contributes to these inequities in our society." A few years ago, the
Bale laboratory showed that mouse pups delivered by C- section and given vaginal microbiomes from stressed mouse mothers had differences in how
their brains developed and how they responded to later stress in their environment compared to those pups given microbiomes from unstressed moms.

Work on the human vaginal microbiome by Jacques Ravel, PhD, Professor
of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland School of
Medicine and Associate Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences,
found that human vaginal microbiomes fall into five different groupings
based on the resident microbes with four healthy variations, and one 'unhealthy' group.

Dr. Bale's research team wanted to know if this unhealthy vaginal
microbiome might affect a baby's development and birth outcomes,
similar to their previous mouse studies. They tested this idea by using
vaginal microbiome samples from pregnant women in their C-section
mouse model. First, they applied either the healthy or unhealthy
bacterial samples into the mouse's vagina to recreate the gestational environment. Then, the pups born via C-section ingested the same vaginal microbiomes mimicking vaginal birth exposure. The researchers investigated which genes were turned on and off in the brains of the pups to see how
the mothers' vaginal microbes affected their pups' development. They found these pups had early activation and development of their immune systems.

Next, to more accurately model a vulnerable and low-resourced population,
the researchers repeated the study, but added the risk factor of
prediabetes and obesity by swapping the pregnant mouse's normally healthy low-fat, high-fiber chow for an unhealthy high-fat, low-fiber diet. Sixty percent of the mouse pups exposed to the human unhealthy microbiomes
and fed the unhealthy diet died within 48 hours of delivery. However,
with the same microbiome exposure but on a healthy high-fiber diet,
the death rate dropped by more than half.



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Dr. Bale says that soluble fiber, like that found in fruits and
vegetables, ferments in the gut, allowing the bacteria to produce
short-chain fatty acids, which are needed for baby's brain development
and are also effective anti- inflammatory agents for mom.

"The vaginal microbiome component led to dramatic changes in the brain
through fetal immune system development, and it appears that this
overactive immune system seems to up the risk for infant mortality,"
said Dr. Bale. "In humans we had observed these associations with
unhealthy vaginal microbiomes, but now our work is allowing us to make
these connections and to identify the mechanisms that ultimately affect pregnancy outcomes, perhaps as novel biomarkers that could be used in identifying women at risk." Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Executive
Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland Baltimore, and
the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor at the University
of Maryland School of Medicine, said, "These studies help to set the stage
for what interventions may be tested to improve the health and wellness
and reduce infant mortality rates, particularly in our most vulnerable populations." Other authors on the paper include Eldin Jasarević,
PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Research Technician Elizabeth
Hill, Research Technician Patrick Kane, Research Lab Manager Lindsay
Rutt, Research Technician Trevonn Gyles, Research Technician Lillian
Folts, Postdoctoral Fellow Kylie Rock, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow Kathleen Morrison, PhD, and Research Technician Christopher Howard, all from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

This study was supported by grants from the National Institute of
Mental Health (R33MH104184, R37MH108286), Eunice Kennedy Shriver
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD097093, K99HD091376), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES028202), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases (K01DK121734), and the Institute for Nursing Research of the
National Institutes of Health (R01NR014826, R01NR015495).

Dr. Ravel is Founder and Chief Scientist at LUCA Biologics.

special promotion Get a free digital "Metabolism Myths"
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always get wrong about diet and exercise. Claim_yours_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_Maryland_School_of_Medicine. Original written by Vanessa
McMains. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Eldin Jasarević, Elizabeth M. Hill, Patrick J. Kane,
Lindsay Rutt,
Trevonn Gyles, Lillian Folts, Kylie D. Rock, Christopher D. Howard,
Kathleen E. Morrison, Jacques Ravel, Tracy L. Bale. The composition
of human vaginal microbiota transferred at birth affects offspring
health in a mouse model. Nature Communications, 2021; 12 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41467- 021-26634-9 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220127104217.htm

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