Maternal bacteria and other microorganisms are passed on directly to the child during the first instants of life, in the different stages of natural delivery, and subsequently with breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact. These bacteria seem more persistent than others in the infant.
An article that appeared in “Cell Host and Microbe” on 11 July reveals the particularities of bacteria and other maternal microorganisms. The news was reported on the cover of the scientific journal, where a mother is portrayed holding a large umbrella to protect her child from unwanted microorganisms, symbolizing the mother-child transmission.
The study, coordinated by a research group of the Centre for Integrative biology-Cibio of the University of Trento with cooperation from Ospedale Santa Chiara in Trento (which has been confirmed as a “Baby Friendly Hospital” under a WHS-UNICEF initiative), and funded by Fondazione Caritro, demonstrates the transmission of various microorganisms from mother to child in the first days and months of life.
The researchers mapped the transmission of microbiome using, among others, new IT instruments, and have shown how bacteria from the mother colonize newborns with more long-term effects compared with bacteria from other sources, like the surrounding environment.
The study involved 25 mother/child couples recruited and sampled by the departments of Obstetrics and Neonatology of Santa Chiara Hospital in Trento starting in 2014. To identify the microorganisms that make up the microbiome and to track its transmission, researchers used innovative computational methodologies (bioinformatics) applied to a cutting-edge biotechnological technique called metagenomics.
Every human being carries a double set of personal information: a genetic heritage, which is passed on to us from our parents, and a unique microbiota, a set of many bacteria, viruses and fungi that inhabit our body. By analysing a person’s microbiota it is possible to identify the microbial species that characterize his or her personal set and, potentially, to establish his or her health condition and the risk to develop certain diseases. Microorganisms are mapped thanks to metagenomics, a biotechnological method that uses fecal, oral, skin and vaginal samples to identify microorganisms by sequencing their genetic material and performing an informatics analysis of the data.
The article, entitled “Mother-to-infant microbial transmission from different body sites shapes the developing infant gut microbiome”, involved international collaboration from 45 people from 10 universities and health centres.
Cibio participated with Pamela Ferretti, now at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and first author of the study, professor Nicola Segata, project’s head and coordinator, and six other members of the Laboratory of Computational Metagenomics.
The paper was co-authored by 16 members of the Provincial Healthcare Services who have coordinated and performed the sampling at Ospedale Santa Chiara in Trento. The same members of CIBIO have also co-authored a study which was published in the same journal confirming the results achieved by a complementary analysis carried out in the laboratories of Harvard and of the Broad Institute in Boston.
More details in the press release