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Michigan Cohorts to Assess the Associations of Maternal Pre‐Pregnancy Obesity with Pregnancy and Infant Gastrointestinal Microbial Communities
Author(s) -
Comstock Sarah S.,
Sugino Kameron Y.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.965.28
Subject(s) - medicine , pregnancy , overweight , obesity , obstetrics , population , demography , environmental health , genetics , biology , sociology
About 25% of women in the United States are obese prior to becoming pregnant. Although there is some knowledge about the relationship between the gastrointestinal microbiota and obesity, there is little knowledge about the relationship between pre‐pregnancy obesity and the gastrointestinal microbiota in pregnancy. We are in the first phases of developing birth cohorts in the state of Michigan to assess the associations between pre‐pregnancy obesity and maternal and infant gastrointestinal microbial communities. Women were recruited at Obstetric/Gynecological offices in the greater Lansing and Traverse City areas. To date, 40 mother/infant dyads have enrolled. Participants complete questionnaires as well as submit fecal samples. Fecal samples are collected from the mother in her third trimester of pregnancy and from the infants at one week, six months, 12 months and 24 months of age. This research population is unique because the majority of participating moms are unmarried, have not graduated from college, and have an annual household income of less than $25,000. 35% of the currently enrolled moms had smoked at some point in their life. Of the 32 moms from whom we've collected fecal samples, 34% are obese (BMI≥30), 22% are overweight (25≤BMI<30) and 44% are normal weight (18.5≤BMI<25). Nine moms had used antibiotics in the year prior to becoming pregnant. Over 50% (n=18) of the moms reported at least one allergic or intestinal health problem. Five of the mothers have given birth to three or more babies. Of the 26 babies from whom we've collected fecal samples, 65% were exclusively breastfed, 4% (n=1) were exclusively formula‐fed, and 31% (n=8) were fed between 20–80% human milk. DNA has been extracted from the pregnancy and infant one week samples of 26 participanting dyads. 16S rRNA gene libraries have been created and submitted for sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform. Data will be processed with the Mothur curation pipeline. Using the data collected from these cohorts, we will determine the associations between maternal pre‐pregnancy BMI and the gastrointestinal bacterial communities in pregnant women and their infants as well as compare the microbiota of the mother to that of her infant. Support or Funding Information Michigan State University and NIH UG3 OD023285