Italian study on microbiota reveals advantages transmitted from mother to unborn child

2023-09-04 17:48:43

Identified beneficial microorganisms that remain in the female intestine until childbearing age to be then transmitted from mother to child during birth. This is the result of the study by the University of Parma published in the scientific journal ‘Nature Communications’. The goal is to understand the composition of the human gut microbiota and its persistence along the various stages of life. The work “has highlighted important differences in the intestinal microbiota linked to the sex of the individual and has allowed the identification of microorganisms that remain in the female intestine until the fertile age to be then transmitted from mother to child during childbirth. These strains – underlines the university – they are part of the genus Bifidobacterium, a group of microorganisms that is much studied because it is associated with a positive impact on the health of the host”.

“This is the first work which, thanks to the use of metagenomic and functional genomic techniques, not only provides a very detailed image of the composition of the bacterial communities (microbiota) residing in the intestines of men and women, but also identifies through which these are able to interact with the host in an extremely selective way.The study – continues the university – in fact demonstrates how the female organism has evolved to transmit a specific and advantageous bacterial kit to the unborn child. was entirely conducted by a research group from the University of Parma coordinated by Marco Ventura and made up of a team of professors, including Francesca Turroni, Christian Milani, Gabriele Andrea Lugli, Leonardo Mancabelli, Ovidio Bussolati and Massimiliano Bianchi, as well as other young researchers”.

The study is part of a series of researches on the microbiota and its interaction with humans and food, which have produced several publications, conducted by the Probiogenomics Laboratory and by MRH, the ‘Microbiome Research Hub’ interdepartmental center . The latter was recently established in order to integrate into an interdisciplinary logic the studies on the microbiota carried out by scholars of recognized international prestige and thus to obtain significant progress towards a better understanding of the molecular bases responsible for the microorganism-host interaction and possible positive or negative implications for human health.