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Maternal Nutritional Status and Gut Microbiome Composition

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition in Women".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (23 August 2023) | Viewed by 4146

Special Issue Editor

School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: microbiome; pregnancy; obesity; hypertension; diabetes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over time, the roles of the microbiome (gut, oral, and vaginal) in pregnancy and complications of pregnancy have become apparent. Outside pregnancy, it is very clear that dietary intake is a major determinant of the composition of the microbiome, especially the gut microbiota. However, this association between dietary intake and the microbiome composition has not been clearly established. In the post-partum period, appropriate dietary intake is critical for the establishment and maintenance of breastfeeding, and the microbiome of the mother may be a contributing factor. In this Special Issue, we focus on the interactions between the microbiome composition and nutritional intake in pregnancy and lactation to establish the similarities and differences between these interactions in and outside pregnancy. We also aim to explore whether complications of pregnancy such as gestational diabetes and pregnancy-related hypertensive disorders alter the interactions between the microbiome and nutrition.

Dr. Marloes Dekker Nitert
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • pregnancy
  • lactation
  • microbiome
  • nutrition
  • gestational diabetes mellitus
  • hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 5790 KiB  
Article
Maternal Diet Determines Milk Microbiome Composition and Offspring Gut Colonization in Wistar Rats
by Paula Martínez-Oca, Claudio Alba, Alicia Sánchez-Roncero, Tamara Fernández-Marcelo, María Ángeles Martín, Fernando Escrivá, Juan Miguel Rodríguez, Carmen Álvarez and Elisa Fernández-Millán
Nutrients 2023, 15(20), 4322; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15204322 - 10 Oct 2023
Viewed by 976
Abstract
Mother’s milk contains a unique microbiome that plays a relevant role in offspring health. We hypothesize that maternal malnutrition during lactation might impact the microbial composition of milk and affect adequate offspring gut colonization, increasing the risk for later onset diseases. Then, Wistar [...] Read more.
Mother’s milk contains a unique microbiome that plays a relevant role in offspring health. We hypothesize that maternal malnutrition during lactation might impact the microbial composition of milk and affect adequate offspring gut colonization, increasing the risk for later onset diseases. Then, Wistar rats were fed ad libitum (Control, C) food restriction (Undernourished, U) during gestation and lactation. After birth, offspring feces and milk stomach content were collected at lactating day (L)4, L14 and L18. The V3–V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was sequenced to characterize bacterial communities. An analysis of beta diversity revealed significant disparities in microbial composition between groups of diet at L4 and L18 in both milk, and fecal samples. In total, 24 phyla were identified in milk and 18 were identified in feces, with Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteroidota and Bacteroidota collectively representing 96.1% and 97.4% of those identified, respectively. A higher abundance of Pasteurellaceae and Porphyromonas at L4, and of Gemella and Enterococcus at L18 were registered in milk samples from the U group. Lactobacillus was also significantly more abundant in fecal samples of the U group at L4. These microbial changes compromised the number and variety of milk–feces or feces–feces bacterial correlations. Moreover, increased offspring gut permeability and an altered expression of goblet cell markers TFF3 and KLF3 were observed in U pups. Our results suggest that altered microbial communication between mother and offspring through breastfeeding may explain, in part, the detrimental consequences of maternal malnutrition on offspring programming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Maternal Nutritional Status and Gut Microbiome Composition)
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14 pages, 2879 KiB  
Article
Joint Microbiota Activity and Dietary Assessment through Urinary Biomarkers by LC-MS/MS
by Victoria Ramos-Garcia, Isabel Ten-Doménech, Alba Moreno-Giménez, Laura Campos-Berga, Anna Parra-Llorca, María Gormaz, Máximo Vento, Melina Karipidou, Dimitrios Poulimeneas, Eirini Mamalaki, Eirini Bathrellou and Julia Kuligowski
Nutrients 2023, 15(8), 1894; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15081894 - 14 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1322
Abstract
Accurate dietary assessment in nutritional research is a huge challenge, but essential. Due to the subjective nature of self-reporting methods, the development of analytical methods for food intake and microbiota biomarkers determination is needed. This work presents an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled [...] Read more.
Accurate dietary assessment in nutritional research is a huge challenge, but essential. Due to the subjective nature of self-reporting methods, the development of analytical methods for food intake and microbiota biomarkers determination is needed. This work presents an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method for the quantification and semi quantification of 20 and 201 food intake biomarkers (BFIs), respectively, as well as 7 microbiota biomarkers applied to 208 urine samples from lactating mothers (M) (N = 59). Dietary intake was assessed through a 24 h dietary recall (R24h). BFI analysis identified three distinct clusters among samples: samples from clusters 1 and 3 presented higher concentrations of most biomarkers than those from cluster 2, with dairy products and milk biomarkers being more concentrated in cluster 1, and seeds, garlic and onion in cluster 3. Significant correlations were observed between three BFIs (fruits, meat, and fish) and R24h data (r > 0.2, p-values < 0.01, Spearman correlation). Microbiota activity biomarkers were simultaneously evaluated and the subgroup patterns detected were compared to clusters from dietary assessment. These results evidence the feasibility, usefulness, and complementary nature of the determination of BFIs, R24h, and microbiota activity biomarkers in observational nutrition cohort studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Maternal Nutritional Status and Gut Microbiome Composition)
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11 pages, 549 KiB  
Article
Relationship between the Mediterranean Diet Score in Pregnancy and the Incidence of Asthma at 4 Years of Age: The Japan Environment and Children’s Study
by Kaita Nakano, Shohei Kuraoka, Masako Oda, Takashi Ohba, Hiroshi Mitsubuchi, Kimitoshi Nakamura, Takahiko Katoh and the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) Group
Nutrients 2023, 15(7), 1772; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15071772 - 05 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1548
Abstract
Several scoring methods for the Mediterranean diet, which is considered as a healthy diet, are available, but studies that have compared more than one of these scores are rare. In addition, the applicability of Mediterranean diet scoring has not been sufficiently examined outside [...] Read more.
Several scoring methods for the Mediterranean diet, which is considered as a healthy diet, are available, but studies that have compared more than one of these scores are rare. In addition, the applicability of Mediterranean diet scoring has not been sufficiently examined outside of Mediterranean regions. We collected data on the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy and the incidence of type 1 allergies in offspring from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. Using multiple Mediterranean diet scoring methods, we analyzed the effect of adherence to the Mediterranean diet in pregnancy on the allergies of the offspring. Overall, 46,532 pairs of mothers and children were analyzed. In Japan, a high adherence to the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy was associated with a lower incidence of asthma in the offspring (odds ratio: 0.896, 95% confidence interval: 0.835, 0.962). Furthermore, we found that the selection of the Mediterranean diet scoring method and the setting of the reference value significantly altered the results. Our findings suggest that an appropriate selection of scoring methods and a reference value for food items are important to analyze the effects of adherence to the Mediterranean diet inside and outside of Mediterranean regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Maternal Nutritional Status and Gut Microbiome Composition)
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