Maternal Microbiome and Metabolic Health Program Microbiome Development and Health of the Offspring

Maternal nutritional, metabolic, and physiological states, as well as exposure to various environmental factors during conception, gestation, and lactation, have a fundamental role in the health programming of the offspring. Therefore, alterations affecting the maternal microbiota might indirectly influence fetal development. In addition, such alterations could be transmitted to the progeny at different stages of infant development (e.g., preconception, prenatal, or postnatal), thereby favoring the development of an altered microbiota in the neonate. Microbial changes of this kind have been linked to an increased risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including obesity and metabolic syndrome, allergy-related problems, and diabetes. In this review, we summarize the relevance of the maternal microbiota to fetal–neonatal health programming, with a focus on maternal nutritional and metabolic states.
ean Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (ERC starting grant, n° 639226). M.C. is supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (postdoctoral fellowship FWO-12R2717N and travel grant FWO-V436918N). O.K. is supported by the Alon fellowship, the Carasso fellowship and grants funded by IBM, the Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG-630956), the Israel Science Foundation (1001/16), the Minerva Foundation, the Israeli Ministry of Health (3-0000-10451), and the Canadian-Israel Health Initiative, jointly funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Israel Science Foundation, the International Development Research Centre, Canada, and the Azrieli Foundation (2459/15).