Microbiota at Multiple Body Sites during Pregnancy in a Rural Tanzanian Population and Effects of Moringa-Supplemented Probiotic Yogurt - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2015 Aug;81(15):4965-75.

doi: 10.1128/AEM.00780-15. Epub 2015 May 15.

Megan K Enos 1, George PrayGod 2, Shannon Seney 3, Jean M Macklaim 4, Stephanie Chilton 5, Dana Willner 6, Rob Knight 7, Christoph Fusch 8, Gerhard Fusch 8, Gregory B Gloor 4, Jeremy P Burton 9, Gregor Reid 10

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Microbiota at Multiple Body Sites during Pregnancy in a Rural Tanzanian Population and Effects of Moringa-Supplemented Probiotic Yogurt

Jordan E Bisanz et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

The nutritional status of pregnant women is vital for healthy outcomes and is a concern for a large proportion of the world's population. The role of the microbiota in pregnancy and nutrition is a promising new area of study with potential health ramifications. In many African countries, maternal and infant death and morbidity are associated with malnutrition. Here, we assess the influence of probiotic yogurt containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1, supplemented with Moringa plant as a source of micronutrients, on the health and oral, gut, vaginal, and milk microbiotas of 56 pregnant women in Tanzania. In an open-label study design, 26 subjects received yogurt daily, and 30 were untreated during the last two trimesters and for 1 month after birth. Samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and dietary recalls were recorded. Women initially categorized as nourished or undernourished consumed similar calories and macronutrients, which may explain why there was no difference in the microbiota at any body site. Consumption of yogurt increased the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium and decreased Enterobacteriaceae in the newborn feces but had no effect on the mother's microbiota at any body site. The microbiota of the oral cavity and GI tract remained stable over pregnancy, but the vaginal microbiota showed a significant increase in diversity leading up to and after birth. In summary, daily micronutrient-supplemented probiotic yogurt provides a safe, affordable food for pregnant women in rural Tanzania, and the resultant improvement in the gut microbial profile of infants is worthy of further study.

Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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Figures

FIG 1

FIG 1

CONSORT study flow diagram.

FIG 2

FIG 2

PCoAs of weighted UniFrac distances (A) and Shannon's diversity index of samples taken at enrollment and birth (B) show no effect of nourishment-status (N, nourished; UN, undernourished) on the microbiota at studied body sites.

FIG 3

FIG 3

Heat map of all samples (n = 974) at the genus level. Samples were UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages) clustered be weighted UniFrac distances showing strong clustering of samples by body site (as indicated in the lower heat map).

FIG 4

FIG 4

(A) PCoA of Bray-Curtis dissimilarities shows distinct clustering of samples based on body site. The infant's oral and fecal microbiomes cluster most closely with the breast milk. (B) Analysis of weighted UniFrac distances shows that the oral sample of a baby is more similar to their own mother than their fecal sample. At both 0 to 10 days after birth and 10 to 25 days after birth, there was more similarity between the infant's oral sample and their mother's breast milk (n = 22, 0 to 10 days; n = 27, 10 to 25 days) than between the infant's fecal sample (n = 25, 0 to 10 days; n = 29, 10 to 25 days) to their mother's breast milk (Fig. 2B, P < 0.0001 [FDR-corrected Welch's t test]). There is also a nonsignificant trend that an infant's oral microbiota is more similar to their own mother's breast milk microbiota than that of other mothers.

FIG 5

FIG 5

(A) Microbiota analysis by weighted UniFrac distances comparing samples to enrollment show that Moringa-supplemented probiotic yogurt does not affect the microbiota structure and that the oral and fecal microbiotas remain stable over pregnancy. The vaginal microbiota appears to be significantly altered at birth regardless of consumption of yogurt. (B) The fecal microbiota of infants aged 10 to 25 days who consumed the yogurt weakly clusters separately from controls by PCoA of weighted UniFrac distances (red = control, blue = probiotic). (C) There is in an increase in the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium (Bifido) and decrease in Enterobacteraceae (Entero) (FDR-corrected Wilcoxon rank-sum test < 0.05) in the feces of the infants whose mother's received probiotic yogurt intervention (_n_ = 10) compared to controls (_n_ = 12). This difference was not present in the breast milk (_P_ > 0.05).

FIG 6

FIG 6

(A) Time series of vaginal samples shows increasing diversity and leading up to and after birth. Nugent score based on microscopy (wherein 0 to 3 is considered normal, 4 to 6 intermediate, and 7 to 10 is a state of microbial dysbiosis referred to as BV) is also displayed. (B) Comparison of Shannon's diversity shows an increase within 10 days after birth. (C) Heat map of genera composing >1% of vaginal organisms shows a loss of lactobacilli and an increase in BV-associated organisms such as Prevotella.

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