Association of Maternal Gestational Weight Gain With the Infant Fecal Microbiota

Abstract

Objectives Pregnancy characteristics may influence the infant fecal microbiota during early life. We aimed to examine associations of maternal gestational weight gain with infant fecal microbiota composition, bacterial community richness, and Shannon diversity index. Methods We analyzed data from a prospective cohort study of healthy infants. We collected prenatal data, including report of mother’s gestational weight gain, and infant fecal samples from 84 infant-mother dyads. By applying 16S rRNA gene sequencing and an unbiased clustering by partitioning around medoids using Bray-Curtis distances, we identified four fecal microbiota profiles, and examined the associations of maternal gestational weight gain with the four fecal microbiota profiles, bacterial community richness, and Shannon diversity index. Results Overall, the median age of infants was 4.0 months and 43% were female. The mothers of the 84 infants gained a mean of 14.2 kg (SD, 5.4 kg) during pregnancy. We identified four distinct microbiota profiles: Bifidobacterium-dominant (42%), Enterobacter/Veillonella-dominant (23%), Bacteroides-dominant (19%), and Escherichia-dominant (17%). Infants whose mothers had higher gestational weight gain were less likely to have a Bacteroides-dominant profile, corresponding to a relative risk ratio of 0.83 (95%CI, 0.71–0.96; P=0.01) per 1 kilogram increase in weight. Additionally, higher gestational weight gain was also associated with lower bacterial community richness and Shannon diversity index (P<0.05). Conclusion In this prospective cohort study of healthy infants, maternal gestational weight gain was associated with the infant fecal microbiota profiles, bacterial community richness, and Shannon diversity index.

Influence of Maternal Prepregnancy Obesity and Excessive Gestational Weight Gain on Maternal and Child Gastrointestinal Microbiome Composition: A Systematic Review

“…Table 1 lists data extracted from each study, including author, PICO statement, number of participants and biospecimens, time point of microbiome collection, and the data source (i.e., primary data collection in a cohort study or collection from a specimen biobank or repository). We have categorized studies in the table by population from which biospecimens were collected: five studies collected biospecimens from mothers only (Collado, Isolauri, Laitinen, & Salminen, 2008;Gomez-Arango et al, 2016a;Houttu, Mokkala, & Laitinen, 2017;Santacruz et al, 2010;Smid et al, 2018), four sequenced biospecimens from children only (Collado, Isolauri, Laitinen, & Salminen, 2010;Galley, Bailey, Kamp Dush, Schoppe-Sullivan, & Christian, 2014;Mueller et al, 2016;Robinson et al, 2017), and two included biospecimens from both mothers and their infants (Chu, Antony, et al, 2016;Stanislawski et al, 2017). The average time point for collection of maternal gastrointestinal microbiome biospecimens was 17.2 weeks' gestation (range ¼ 10À24 weeks' gestation), while two studies conducted followup microbiome collection at 30À39 weeks' gestation (range ¼ 30À39 weeks; Collado et al, 2008;Smid et al, 2018).…”

“…The average time point for collection of maternal gastrointestinal microbiome biospecimens was 17.2 weeks' gestation (range ¼ 10À24 weeks' gestation), while two studies conducted followup microbiome collection at 30À39 weeks' gestation (range ¼ 30À39 weeks; Collado et al, 2008;Smid et al, 2018). Only two of the studies used biospecimens from a common biobank or biorepository (Robinson et al, 2017;Stanislawski et al, 2017). Table 1 further provides operationalization of key variables across each of the included studies.…”

Initial meconium microbiome in Chinese neonates delivered naturally or by cesarean section

“…It has been reported that significant differences in gestational age, maternal pregnancy weight gain and gender between groups can influence the microbiome 21 , 29 , 42 . In this study, with a relative limited sample size, the impact of these factors was not concerned.…”

Sphingolipid metabolism potential in fecal microbiome and bronchiolitis in infants: a case–control study

“…Exclusion criteria were a transfer to a participating hospital >48 h after the original hospitalization, delayed consent (>24 h after hospitalization), gestational age ≤32 weeks, and known comorbidities (cardiopulmonary disease, immunodeficiency, immunosuppression). In addition, during the same period, we also enrolled 115 healthy infants as the controls (age-matched within 1.5 months of cases) [ 11 , 15 – 17 ]. We excluded infants with current fever, respiratory illness, or gastrointestinal illness, antibiotic treatment in the preceding 7 days, gestational age ≤32 weeks, or known comorbidities.…”

“…Taken together, a total of 155 infants were eligible for the current analysis. From these infants, by using a standardized protocol [ 11 , 15 , 17 ], investigators conducted a structured interview and medical record review, and collected fecal specimens at the time of hospitalization (cases) or at home before the clinic visit (controls). The fecal samples were immediately stored at −80 °C.…”