Maternal gut microbiota in the health of mothers and offspring: from the perspective of immunology

Front Immunol. 2024 Mar 13:15:1362784. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1362784. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Due to the physiological alteration during pregnancy, maternal gut microbiota changes following the metabolic processes. Recent studies have revealed that maternal gut microbiota is closely associated with the immune microenvironment in utero during pregnancy and plays a vital role in specific pregnancy complications, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm birth and recurrent miscarriages. Some other evidence has also shown that aberrant maternal gut microbiota increases the risk of various diseases in the offspring, such as allergic and neurodevelopmental disorders, through the immune alignment between mother and fetus and the possible intrauterine microbiota. Probiotics and the high-fiber diet are effective inventions to prevent mothers and fetuses from diseases. In this review, we summarize the role of maternal gut microbiota in the development of pregnancy complications and the health condition of future generations from the perspective of immunology, which may provide new therapeutic strategies for the health management of mothers and offspring.

Keywords: fetal development; gut microbiota; immune cells; pregnancy complications; probiotics; recurrent miscarriages; uterine microenvironment.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome*
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Microbiota*
  • Mothers
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Complications* / metabolism
  • Premature Birth*

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was financially supported by Zhejiang Province “Leading Talents” research and development project (2023C03033), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82271694), the Zhejiang Province Natural Science Foundation key project fund (LZ24H040002), the Zhejiang Medicine and Health Science and Technology Plan Project (2023KY800).