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Wu Tianyang, pregnant with her second child, attends a sonogram at a local hospital in Shanghai on September 12, 2014.
(photo credit: CARLOS BARRIA / REUTERS)
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A study by researchers at Bar-Ilan University revealed, for the first time, that intestinal bacteria can "detect" pregnancy.
While pregnancy – wearing an embryo or a fetus – is known to be accompanied by alterations of the microbiome – the important bacterium that lives inside and on our body – previous research did not shed light on the mechanisms responsible for these alterations, which are partly responsible for weight gain and inflammatory reaction during pregnancy.
A study conducted by Dr. Omry Koren of the Azrieli School of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University, in collaboration with Professor Yoram Louzon of the Department of University Mathematics and researchers at the Rabin Medical Center Campus from Beilinson to Petah Tikva has discovered that the progesterone hormones in the microbial composition of bacteria during pregnancy in a way that can help babies to develop.
The results were published Tuesday in Cell Reports, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes articles on the full spectrum of life sciences.
The researchers found a radical change in the composition of bacteria in late pregnancy, including a significant increase in Bifidobacterium, a crucial bacterium for infants, as it breaks down healthy sugars found in breast milk that are important for growing babies. .
They discovered that pregnant women exhibited an increased level of progesterone accompanied by an increased inflammatory response. Although they also recorded an increase in other bacteria, Bifidobacterium was the only bacterium identical to pregnancy in mice.
When researchers mimicked pregnancy in mice using progesterone, they found that the number of bifidobacteria also increased, which allowed them to conclude that it "detected" and reacted to progesterone. They also found that Bifidobacterium increased rapidly when progesterone was administered in a controlled environment outside of a living organism, thus reinforcing their conclusion.
"Our results define a model in which progesterone promotes the growth of Bifidobacterium in late pregnancy," said Dr. Koren.
"The findings provide new information for understanding the relationship between hormones and intestinal bacteria during pregnancy, but also for other conditions in which hormones are involved, such as progesterone supplementation as a component of treatments. fertility or treatment in postmenopausal women, "he said. .
Researchers are now looking to identify the reasons for the Bifidobacterium reaction, as well as to assess what other pregnancy hormones do and how they affect bacteria.
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