Researchers at the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University say the microbiomes in the reproductive tracts of pregnant women who later had a baby born pre-term are significantly different from those of women who delivered full term. The findings are based on the microbiome taken from 49 pregnant women.
“These findings may help us screen women and identify and predict those who are more likely to have a baby born too soon,” says David Relman, MD, a professor of microbiology, immunology, and of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the lead investigator for the research center on this project.
In a research paper “Temporal and Spatial Variation of the Human Microbiota During Pregnancy,” published on August 17 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers also found that the patterns of women’s microbiomes changed immediately after they delivered their babies, and did not revert back to pre-pregnancy patterns in some cases until at least a year later. Dr. Relman says this might explain why women with closely spaced pregnancies have a higher risk of preterm birth.
Fifteen million babies are born preterm worldwide, and more than one million die due to complications of an early birth. The March of Dimes, a non-profit organization for pregnancy and baby health, is raising $75 million to support its five prematurity research centers. These centres will bring together geneticists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, engineers, computer scientists, and others — to work together to find answers to prevent premature birth.
“Our nationwide network of prematurity research centers is critical to understanding the unknown causes of preterm birth. This new finding puts in place another piece toward solving the much larger puzzle of preterm birth,” says Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes.
