Maternal diet during pregnancy is related with the infant stool microbiome in a delivery mode-dependent manner

Abstract

BackgroundThe gut microbiome has an important role in infant health and immune development and may be affected by early-life exposures. Maternal diet may influence the infant gut microbiome through vertical transfer of maternal microbes to infants during vaginal delivery and breastfeeding. We aimed to examine the association of maternal diet during pregnancy with the infant gut microbiome 6 weeks post-delivery in mother-infant dyads enrolled in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study. Infant stool samples were collected from 145 infants, and maternal prenatal diet was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire. We used targeted sequencing of the 16S rRNA V4-V5 hypervariable region to characterize infant gut microbiota. To account for differences in baseline and trajectories of infant gut microbial profiles, we stratified analyses by delivery mode.ResultsWe identified three infant gut microbiome clusters, characterized by increased abundance of Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus and Clostridium, and Bacteroides, respectively, overall and in the vaginally delivered infant stratum. In the analyses stratified to infants born vaginally and adjusted for other potential confounders, maternal fruit intake was associated with infant gut microbial community structure (PERMANOVA, p < 0.05). In multinomial logistic regression analyses, increased fruit intake was associated with an increased odds of belonging to the high Streptococcus/Clostridium group among infants born vaginally (OR (95% CI) = 2.73 (1.36, 5.46)). In infants delivered by Cesarean section, we identified three clusters that differed slightly from vaginally delivered infants, which were characterized by a high abundance of Bifidobacterium, high Clostridium and low Streptococcus and Ruminococcus genera, and high abundance of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Maternal dairy intake was associated with an increased odds of infants belonging to the high Clostridium cluster in infants born by Cesarean section (OR (95% CI) = 2.36 (1.05, 5.30)). Linear models suggested additional associations between maternal diet and infant intestinal microbes in both delivery mode strata.ConclusionsOur data indicate that maternal diet influences the infant gut microbiome and that these effects differ by delivery mode.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-018-0490-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

You Are What You Eat—The Relationship between Diet, Microbiota, and Metabolic Disorders—A Review

“…Interestingly, an infant's GM may also be determined by maternal gestational diet through a vertical transfer of maternal microbes to infants during vaginal delivery and breastfeeding. This theory is confirmed by the study of Lundgren et al [34], who identified distinctions in infant microbial community structure dependent on maternal fruit and milk intake during pregnancy, but this effect differs according to the delivery model. Additionally, reports are suggesting that transmission of commensal bacteria from mother to fetus is likely to occur prior to parturition [35].…”

Microbiota of newborn meconium is associated with maternal anxiety experienced during pregnancy

“…First, although maternal ethnicity/race, age, education, marital status, time of sampling, and mode of delivery were included as potential confounders in the model, our sample size restricted the ability to consider a broader range of covariates. Second, this study lacks information on dietary intakes, while recently several studies show the important role of diet in shaping gut microbiome (Gohir et al, ; Lundgren et al, ; Makki, Deehan, Walter, & Bäckhed, ). Third, this study lacks biological markers of HPA‐axis functioning such as cortisol levels, which are known to correlate with stressful life events and psychopathology (Rubinow, Post, Savard, & Gold, ).…”

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