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Association of maternal prenatal psychological stressors and distress with maternal and early infant faecal bacterial profile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2019

Petrus J.W. Naudé*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health and Neuroscience Institute, Brain Behaviour Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Shantelle Claassen-Weitz
Affiliation:
Division of Medical Microbiology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Sugnet Gardner-Lubbe
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Gerrit Botha
Affiliation:
Computational Biology Group and H3ABioNet, Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Mamadou Kaba
Affiliation:
Division of Medical Microbiology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa SA-MRC Unit on Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Heather J. Zar
Affiliation:
SA-MRC Unit on Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
Mark P. Nicol
Affiliation:
Division of Medical Microbiology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa SA-MRC Unit on Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa National Health Laboratory Service of South Africa, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa Division of Infection and Immunity, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Dan J. Stein
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health and Neuroscience Institute, Brain Behaviour Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa SU/UCT MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health and Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
*
Author for correspondence: Petrus J.W. Naudé, Email: pjw.naude@uct.ac.za

Abstract

Objective:

Findings from animal studies indicate that the early gut bacteriome is a potential mechanism linking maternal prenatal stress with health trajectories in offspring. However, clinical studies are scarce and the associations of maternal psychological profiles with the early infant faecal bacteriome are unknown. This study aimed to investigate the associations of prenatal stressors and distress with early infant faecal bacterial profiles in a South African birth cohort study.

Methods:

Associations between prenatal symptoms of depression, distress, intimate partner violence (IPV) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and faecal bacterial profiles were evaluated in meconium and subsequent stool specimens from 84 mothers and 101 infants at birth, and longitudinally from a subset of 69 and 36 infants at 4–12 and 20–28 weeks of age, respectively, in a South African birth cohort study.

Results:

Infants born to mothers that were exposed to high levels of IPV had significantly higher proportions of Citrobacter and three unclassified genera, all of which belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae detected at birth. Proportions of these Enterobacteriaceae remained significantly increased over time (birth to 20–28 weeks of life) in infants born to mothers with high levels of IPV exposure compared to infants from mothers with no/low IPV exposure. Infants born to mothers exposed to IPV also had higher proportions of the genus Weissella at 4–12 weeks compared to infants from mothers with no/low IPV exposure. Faecal specimens from mothers exposed to IPV had higher proportions of the family Lactobacillaceae and lower proportions of Peptostreptococcaceae at birth. Maternal psychological distress was associated with decreased proportions of the family Veillonellaceae in infants at 20–28 weeks and a slower decline in Gammaproteobacteria over time. No changes in beta diversity were apparent for maternal or infant faecal bacterial profiles in relation to any of the prenatal measures for psychological adversities.

Conclusion:

Maternal lifetime IPV and antenatal psychological distress are associated with altered bacterial profiles in infant and maternal faecal bacteria. These findings may provide insights in the involvement of the gut bacteria linking maternal psychological adversity and the maturing infant brain.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© Scandinavian College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2019 

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Footnotes

*

Authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

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