Qi Qi, Liu Danmeng, Wang Liang, Zhu Yingze, Gebremedhin Mitslal Abrha, Zhu Zhonghai, Zeng Lingxia
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, China.
Translational Medicine Center, Northwest Women's and Children's Hospital, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Front Nutr. 2025 Jun 24;12:1589258. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1589258. eCollection 2025.
Iron is an essential nutrient during pregnancy and may influence the early development of the neonatal gut microbiota. This study aimed to investigate the association between maternal dietary iron intake during pregnancy and the gut microbiota (GM) characteristics of both the mother and neonate in a well-characterized cohort.
Ninety-five mother-neonate dyads were included in this study. Mothers completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) providing estimates of dietary iron intake during pregnancy, and participants were categorized into higher (≥ median) or lower (< median) groups of maternal dietary iron intake. Fecal samples were collected from mothers (third trimester) and from neonates, and assessed via 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Differences in diversity and abundance of GM were compared between groups.
There was no difference in profile or diversity in maternal samples however, neonatal samples indicated greater diversity of GM in infants of mothers with higher intakes of iron (Shannon = 0.04; Simpson = 0.01). After stratification by delivery mode, in the stratum of normal vaginal delivery (NVD), Simpson diversity remained higher in the infants' GM of mothers with higher intakes of iron ( = 0.04). The relative abundance of the core genus in NVD and cesarean section (CS) neonates showed higher in the higher group than that in the lower group, as the difference was not statistically significant. Maternal dietary iron intake was significantly associated with the neonate GM composition with variation explained 10.24% ( = 0.007).
Adequate dietary iron intake during pregnancy may promote beneficial bacterial colonization and increase the biodiversity of the neonate GM.
铁是孕期必需的营养素，可能会影响新生儿肠道微生物群的早期发育。本研究旨在调查在一个特征明确的队列中，孕期母亲膳食铁摄入量与母亲和新生儿肠道微生物群（GM）特征之间的关联。
本研究纳入了95对母婴二元组。母亲们完成了一份食物频率问卷（FFQ），以估计孕期膳食铁摄入量，并将参与者分为母亲膳食铁摄入量较高（≥中位数）或较低（<中位数）组。从母亲（孕晚期）和新生儿采集粪便样本，并通过16S rRNA扩增子测序进行评估。比较两组之间GM多样性和丰度的差异。
母亲样本的特征或多样性没有差异，然而，新生儿样本表明，铁摄入量较高的母亲所生婴儿的GM多样性更高（香农指数=0.04；辛普森指数=0.01）。按分娩方式分层后，在自然阴道分娩（NVD）层中，铁摄入量较高的母亲所生婴儿的GM中辛普森多样性仍然较高（=0.04）。NVD和剖宫产（CS）新生儿中核心属的相对丰度在较高组中高于较低组，差异无统计学意义。母亲膳食铁摄入量与新生儿GM组成显著相关，变异解释率为10.24%（=0.007）。
孕期充足的膳食铁摄入量可能促进有益细菌的定植，并增加新生儿GM的生物多样性。
