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Updated: Sep 12, 2025
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A Murine Model of Fetal Exposure to Maternal Inflammation to Study the Effects of Acute Chorioamnionitis on Newborn Intestinal Development
Published on: June 24, 2020
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Environmental and Maternal Imprints on Infant Gut Metabolic Programming
Kine Eide Kvitne1, Celeste Allaband2, Jennifer C Onuora3,4
1Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|August 8, 2025
Summary
Early life gut microbiome development in Bangladeshi infants shows increasing microbial bile amidates and N-acyl lipids. Environmental factors and delivery mode significantly shape infant metabolic profiles.
Area of Science:
- Microbiome research
- Metabolomics
- Human development
Background:
- Early life is crucial for immune and metabolic programming.
- Developmental patterns are underexplored in low- and middle-income countries.
Purpose of the Study:
- To profile the microbiome and metabolome of Bangladeshi mother-infant dyads during the first six months of life.
- To understand how environmental and maternal factors influence infant gut metabolic programming.
Main Methods:
- Profiling of microbiome and metabolome in 55 Bangladeshi mother-infant dyads.
- Microbial source tracking.
- Multi-omics analysis to identify microbial-metabolite relationships.
Main Results:
- Observed age-related increase in microbially-derived bile amidates and N-acyl lipids, linked to the bile salt hydrolase (bsh) gene.
- Confirmed maternal fecal seeding but also highlighted significant environmental contributions.
- Infant fecal metabolic profiles differed based on delivery mode, maternal milk, household assets, and water treatment.
- C-section delivery and untreated water associated with transient metabolic changes, including increased bile amidates and N-acyl lipids.
Conclusions:
- Early life environmental and maternal circumstances significantly shape infant metabolic gut programming via the microbiome.
- Specific microbial-metabolite relationships were identified, offering insights into host-microbe co-metabolism.
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