1. Partial restoration of the microbiota of cesarean-born infants via vaginal microbial transfer
- Author
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Kassandra M. De Jesús-Laboy, Juana I Rivera-Viñas, Amnon Amir, Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Nicholas A. Bokulich, Jose C. Clemente, Marina Hoashi, Se Jin Song, Laura M. Cox, Nan Shen, Antonio Gonzalez, Rob Knight, and Keimari Mendez
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Pilot Projects ,Biology ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Pregnancy ,medicine ,Bacteroides ,Humans ,Microbiome ,Longitudinal Studies ,Skin ,Mouth ,Health consequences ,Extramural ,Obstetrics ,Cesarean Section ,Microbiota ,Gastrointestinal Microbiome ,Infant, Newborn ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Delivery, Obstetric ,3. Good health ,Surgery ,Lactobacillus ,030104 developmental biology ,Increased risk ,Vagina ,Metagenome ,Female - Abstract
Exposure of newborns to the maternal vaginal microbiota is interrupted with cesarean birthing. Babies delivered by cesarean section (C-section) acquire a microbiota that differs from that of vaginally delivered infants, and C-section delivery has been associated with increased risk for immune and metabolic disorders. Here we conducted a pilot study in which infants delivered by C-section were exposed to maternal vaginal fluids at birth. Similarly to vaginally delivered babies, the gut, oral and skin bacterial communities of these newborns during the first 30 d of life was enriched in vaginal bacteria--which were underrepresented in unexposed C-section-delivered infants--and the microbiome similarity to those of vaginally delivered infants was greater in oral and skin samples than in anal samples. Although the long-term health consequences of restoring the microbiota of C-section-delivered infants remain unclear, our results demonstrate that vaginal microbes can be partially restored at birth in C-section-delivered babies.
- Published
- 2015