Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health and Neuroscience Institute, Brain Behaviour Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Division of Medical Microbiology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Acta Neuropsychiatr. 2020 Feb;32(1):32-42. doi: 10.1017/neu.2019.43. Epub 2019 Dec 20.
Findings from animal studies indicate that the early gut bacteriome is a potential mechanism linking maternal prenatal stress with health trajectories in offspring. However, clinical studies are scarce and the associations of maternal psychological profiles with the early infant faecal bacteriome are unknown. This study aimed to investigate the associations of prenatal stressors and distress with early infant faecal bacterial profiles in a South African birth cohort study.
Associations between prenatal symptoms of depression, distress, intimate partner violence (IPV) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and faecal bacterial profiles were evaluated in meconium and subsequent stool specimens from 84 mothers and 101 infants at birth, and longitudinally from a subset of 69 and 36 infants at 4-12 and 20-28 weeks of age, respectively, in a South African birth cohort study.
Infants born to mothers that were exposed to high levels of IPV had significantly higher proportions of Citrobacter and three unclassified genera, all of which belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae detected at birth. Proportions of these Enterobacteriaceae remained significantly increased over time (birth to 20-28 weeks of life) in infants born to mothers with high levels of IPV exposure compared to infants from mothers with no/low IPV exposure. Infants born to mothers exposed to IPV also had higher proportions of the genus Weissella at 4-12 weeks compared to infants from mothers with no/low IPV exposure. Faecal specimens from mothers exposed to IPV had higher proportions of the family Lactobacillaceae and lower proportions of Peptostreptococcaceae at birth. Maternal psychological distress was associated with decreased proportions of the family Veillonellaceae in infants at 20-28 weeks and a slower decline in Gammaproteobacteria over time. No changes in beta diversity were apparent for maternal or infant faecal bacterial profiles in relation to any of the prenatal measures for psychological adversities.
Maternal lifetime IPV and antenatal psychological distress are associated with altered bacterial profiles in infant and maternal faecal bacteria. These findings may provide insights in the involvement of the gut bacteria linking maternal psychological adversity and the maturing infant brain.
动物研究的结果表明，早期肠道细菌群是将母亲产前压力与后代健康轨迹联系起来的潜在机制。然而，临床研究很少，母亲的心理特征与婴儿早期粪便细菌群的关联尚不清楚。本研究旨在调查南非出生队列研究中产前应激源和困扰与婴儿早期粪便细菌谱的关系。
在南非出生队列研究中，评估了 84 名母亲和 101 名婴儿出生时以及随后的粪便样本中产前抑郁、困扰、亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）和创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状与粪便细菌谱之间的关联，并对其中 69 名和 36 名婴儿进行了纵向研究。在 4-12 周和 20-28 周龄时，分别采集粪便样本。
暴露于高水平 IPV 的母亲所生婴儿的粪便样本中，柠檬酸杆菌和三个未分类属的比例显著升高，所有这些都属于肠杆菌科，在出生时就被检测到。与无/低 IPV 暴露母亲所生婴儿相比，暴露于高水平 IPV 的母亲所生婴儿的这些肠杆菌科比例随着时间的推移（出生至 20-28 周龄）持续显著增加。与无/低 IPV 暴露母亲所生婴儿相比，暴露于 IPV 的母亲所生婴儿的魏斯氏菌属比例在 4-12 周时也更高。暴露于 IPV 的母亲的粪便样本在出生时具有更高比例的乳杆菌科和较低比例的消化链球菌科。在 20-28 周时，母体心理困扰与婴儿的家族 Veillonellaceae 比例降低有关，并且随着时间的推移，Gamma 变形菌的下降速度较慢。母体或婴儿粪便细菌谱与任何产前心理逆境措施都没有明显的 beta 多样性变化。
母亲终身 IPV 和产前心理困扰与婴儿和母亲粪便细菌中细菌谱的改变有关。这些发现可能为肠道细菌在将母亲心理逆境与婴儿大脑成熟联系起来提供了一些见解。
