Pre-pregnancy weight, gestational weight gain, and the gut microbiota of mothers and their infants

Maggie A Stanislawski,Catherine A Lozupone,Dana Dabelea,Merete Eggesbø,Marci K Sontag,Brandie D Wagner

doi:10.1186/s40168-017-0332-0

Abstract

BackgroundRecent evidence supports that the maternal gut microbiota impacts the initial infant gut microbiota. Since the gut microbiota may play a causal role in the development of obesity, it is important to understand how pre-pregnancy weight and gestational weight gain (GWG) impact the gut microbiota of mothers at the time of delivery and their infants in early life. In this study, we performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on gut microbiota samples from 169 women 4 days after delivery and from the 844 samples of their infants at six timepoints during the first 2 years of life. We categorized the women (1) according to pre-pregnancy body mass index into overweight/obese (OW/OB, BMI ≥ 25) or non-overweight/obese (BMI < 25) and (2) into excessive and non-excessive GWG in the subset of mothers of full-term singleton infants (N = 116). We compared alpha diversity and taxonomic composition of the maternal and infant samples by exposure groups. We also compared taxonomic similarity between maternal and infant gut microbiota.ResultsMaternal OW/OB was associated with lower maternal alpha diversity. Maternal pre-pregnancy OW/OB and excessive GWG were associated with taxonomic differences in the maternal gut microbiota, including taxa from the highly heritable family Christensenellaceae, the genera Lachnospira, Parabacteroides, Bifidobacterium, and Blautia. These maternal characteristics were not associated with overall differences in the infant gut microbiota over the first 2 years of life. However, the presence of specific OTUs in maternal gut microbiota at the time of delivery did significantly increase the odds of presence in the infant gut at age 4–10 days for many taxa, and these included some lean-associated taxa.ConclusionsOur results show differences in maternal gut microbiota composition at the time of delivery by pre-pregnancy weight and GWG, but these changes were only associated with limited compositional differences in the early life gut microbiota of their infants. Further work is needed to determine the degree to which these maternal microbiota differences at time of birth with OW/OB and GWG may affect the health of the infant over time and by what mechanism.

Highlights

Recent evidence supports that the maternal gut microbiota impacts the initial infant gut microbiota
Association between maternal characteristics and infant microbiota alpha diversity and composition over the first 2 years of life In order to evaluate the association between exposure to maternal OW/OB or excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) and infant gut alpha diversity, we used longitudinal hierarchical linear regressions with a random intercept for infant within family
We controlled for the same maternal characteristics as in the models of maternal alpha diversity, in addition to the following potential mediating variables: delivery mode at birth, gestational age at birth, exclusive breastfeeding, and antibiotic exposure

Summary

Introduction

Recent evidence supports that the maternal gut microbiota impacts the initial infant gut microbiota. Since the gut microbiota may play a causal role in the development of obesity, it is important to understand how pre-pregnancy weight and gestational weight gain (GWG) impact the gut microbiota of mothers at the time of delivery and their infants in early life. Some studies have shown differences in maternal gut microbiota at different timepoints during pregnancy by obesity status and gestational weight gain [9, 10]. Research about whether these maternal characteristics are associated with differences in the early infant gut microbiota has been inconsistent [11,12,13]. Gut microbiota during infancy has been associated with rapid early growth and later overweight and obesity [14, 15], and numerous exposures known to impact the early gut microbiota, such as birth via cesarean section and antibiotics, have been associated with increased obesity risk [16, 17]

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