Changes in the gut microbiota composition during pregnancy in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) - PubMed (original) (raw)

Observational Study

. 2018 Aug 15;8(1):12216.

doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30735-9.

Valentina Ponzo 2, Roberto Gambino 2, Adriana Zarovska 2, Filomena Leone 3, Clara Monzeglio 4, Ilaria Goitre 2, Rosalba Rosato 5, Angelo Romano 6, Giorgio Grassi 2, Fabio Broglio 2, Maurizio Cassader 2, Luca Cocolin 7, Simona Bo 8

Affiliations

Observational Study

Changes in the gut microbiota composition during pregnancy in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)

Ilario Ferrocino et al. Sci Rep. 2018.

Abstract

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), a common pregnancy complication, is associated with an increased risk of maternal/perinatal outcomes. We performed a prospective observational explorative study in 41 GDM patients to evaluate their microbiota changes during pregnancy and the associations between the gut microbiota and variations in nutrient intakes, anthropometric and laboratory variables. GDM patients routinely received nutritional recommendations according to guidelines. The fecal microbiota (by 16S amplicon-based sequencing), was assessed at enrolment (24-28 weeks) and at 38 weeks of gestational age. At the study end, the microbiota α-diversity significantly increased (P < 0.001), with increase of Firmicutes and reduction of Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. Patients who were adherent to the dietary recommendations showed a better metabolic and inflammatory pattern at the study-end and a significant decrease in Bacteroides. In multiple regression models, Faecalibacterium was significantly associated with fasting glucose; Collinsella (directly) and Blautia (inversely) with insulin, and with Homeostasis-Model Assessment Insulin-Resistance, while Sutterella with C-reactive protein levels. Consistent with this latter association, the predicted metagenomes showed a correlation between those taxa and inferred KEGG genes associated with lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis. A higher bacterial richness and strong correlations between pro-inflammatory taxa and metabolic/inflammatory variables were detected in GDM patients across pregnancy. Collectively these findings suggest that the development of strategies to modulate the gut microbiota might be a potentially useful tool to impact on maternal metabolic health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Boxplots to describe α-diversity measures of fecal microbiota of GDM patients at enrolment (green bars) and study end (blue bars). Individual points and brackets represent the richness estimate and the theoretical standard error range, respectively.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Boxplots showing the relative abundance of Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes phyla in fecal samples of GDM patients at enrolment (green bars) and study end (blue bars). Boxes represent the interquartile range (IQR) between the first and third quartiles, and the line inside represents the median (2nd quartile). Whiskers denote the lowest and the highest values within 1.56 IQR from the first and third quartiles, respectively. Circles represent outliers beyond the whiskers.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based on OTUs relative abundance of GDM patients at enrolment (green) and study end (blue). The first component (horizontal) accounts for the 22.9% of the variance and the second component (vertical) accounts for the 23.5%.

Figure 4

Figure 4

Boxplots showing the relative abundance at genus or family level of the OTUs differentially abundant based on Wilcoxon matched pairs test (P ≤ 0.002) in fecal samples between: GDM patients at enrolment (green bars) and at the study end (blue bars); adherents to the dietary recommendations at enrolment (yellow bars) and at the study end (red bars); non-adherents to the dietary recommendations at enrolment (cyan bars) and at the study end (orange bars).

References

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