Parity influences on the infant gut microbiome development: a longitudinal cohort study
Abstract
ABSTRACT Parity, the number of pregnancies carried beyond 20 weeks, influences the maternal gut microbiome. However, whether parity modulates the infant microbiome longitudinally remains underexplored. To address this, 746 infants in a longitudinal cohort study were assessed. Serial infant stool samples collected at 2, 6, 12, and 24 months underwent 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. Mothers were stratified by parity: 1 = 32.6%, 2 = 42.0%, 3 = 18.6%, 4, 5, 6 or 7 = 6.8%. Although no differences in alpha diversity were found with parity, significant differences were found in microbiome composition (beta diversity, Bray-Curtis) by parity at each time point through the first year of life (p < 0.001). Delivery mode (vaginal delivery (VD) = 60.5%, Cesarean section (CS) = 39.5%) was a significant contributor to infant microbiome composition at 2 months (p = 0.002). In VD infants, parity-related differences in microbiota composition were evident up to 6 months (p ≤ 0.002), however in CS delivered infants, early life parity-related differences were absent. In conclusion, our brief report showed a significant effect of parity on early infant gut microbiome composition. However, the effect of parity diminished with CS delivery, which we hypothesize is due to decreased mother-to-infant microbiome transfer with CS. These results demonstrate the necessity of including parity in longitudinal infant microbiome analyses. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACTSchematic figure of study. Parity influences the…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 746 participants or records.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Bile Acid 7α-Dehydroxylating Gut Bacteria Secrete Antibiotics that Inhibit Clostridium difficile: Role of Secondary Bile Acids
- Ketogenic diet alleviates colitis by reduction of colonic group 3 innate lymphoid cells through altering gut microbiome
- Altered gut microbiome composition and function are associated with gut barrier dysfunction in healthy relatives of patients with Crohn's disease
- Diet, obesity, and the gut microbiome as determinants modulating metabolic outcomes in a non-human primate model
- Immune Impairment Associated with Vitamin A Deficiency: Insights from Clinical Studies and Animal Model Research
- Glyphosate-based herbicides influence antioxidants, reproductive hormones and gut microbiome but not reproduction: A long-term experiment in an avian model
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.