Department of Obstetrics, Placenta Lab, Jena University Hospital, Am Klinikum 1, 07747, Jena, Germany.
Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 29;12(1):5307. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-09243-4.
A mother's postpartum ingestion of raw or processed placental tissue-referred to as human maternal placentophagy-is an emerging health trend observed in industrialized nations. Placenta is commonly consumed as small pieces of raw tissue, or as raw or steamed dehydrated pulverized and encapsulated tissue. To investigate the potential neonatal health risks of this behavior, the present study focused on microbial colonization of processed placenta preparations with potentially pathogenic bacteria Streptococcus agalactiae (Group-B-Streptococci; GBS) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). In the clinical approach placentas from 24 mothers were analyzed. Two placentas, from 13 mothers with confirmed positive maternal GBS status, showed GBS-growth on their surface (2/13; 15.4%) independent from delivery mode or antibiotic treatment. All processed samples (n = 24) were free from GBS. In the experimental approach, a standardized inoculation protocol was introduced to resemble ascending vaginal and hematogenous colonization. Six placentas from elective term C-sections of GBS negative mothers were collected and artificially inoculated with highly concentrated suspensions of GBS and E. coli. Heat processing significantly reduced the number of colony forming units (CFU) for GBS and E. coli. Our results suggest placentophagy of processed tissue is an unlikely source of clinical infection.
一位母亲产后摄入未加工或加工过的胎盘组织——被称为人类产妇胎盘食入，是工业化国家中出现的一种新兴健康趋势。胎盘通常被当作小块未加工的组织食用，或者被加工成生的或蒸干并粉碎成胶囊状的组织。为了研究这种行为对新生儿健康的潜在风险，本研究集中研究了潜在致病细菌——无乳链球菌（B 群链球菌；GBS）和大肠杆菌（E. coli）在加工胎盘制剂中的微生物定植。在临床方法中，分析了 24 位母亲的胎盘。来自 13 位经证实 GBS 阳性母亲的 2 个胎盘表面有 GBS 生长（2/13；15.4%），与分娩方式或抗生素治疗无关。所有加工样本（n=24）均未检出 GBS。在实验方法中，引入了标准化接种方案，以模拟阴道上行和血源性定植。从选择行剖宫产的 GBS 阴性母亲的 6 个胎盘被收集，并被高度浓缩的 GBS 和 E. coli 悬浮液人工接种。热加工显著降低了 GBS 和 E. coli 的菌落形成单位（CFU）数量。我们的结果表明，加工组织的胎盘食入不太可能成为临床感染的来源。
