Microbiome variability of pregnant women and its impact on the frequency of preterm birth
, 2, 3, 1
Abstract
Introduction: Preterm birth is a major public health concern because of its association with neonatal mortality and morbidity. The etiology of preterm birth is complex and multifactorial. New studies suggest that the maternal gut microbiome may influence preterm birth. This study aimed to investigate the association between the diversity and composition of the gut microbiome in pregnant women and rates of preterm birth. Material and methods: Stool samples were collected from 50 patients who had given birth (28 preterm and 22 term). These data were supplemented by questionnaires and laboratory tests routinely performed on women in labor. DNA was extracted from the stool samples and sequenced to determine the presence and abundance of specific bacterial families. Bioinformatics tools were used to analyze the results.
Results: The present results show that women who gave birth prematurely had a less diverse gut microbiome. The analysis also revealed significant differences in the presence of certain bacterial families.
Conclusions: Specific bacterial families and gut microbiota diversity may potentially influence the timing of delivery. An important limitation of this study was the small population size. Therefore, it is believed that further research should be carried out in this area to provide more data and to confirm or refute the results presented.
Key message: Gut microbiota might affect preterm birth risk. The authors identified that certain microbial species can be linked to higher or lower risks of delivering prematurely. It could lead to new strategies for preterm birth mitigation by targeting the gut microbiota.
Keywords: gut microbiotamicrobiomemicrobiome profilingpreterm birthpreterm delivery
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