The father’s gut microbiota could impact the health of the baby

Reduced gut microbial diversity and abundance in male mice increases the risk of low birth weight, stunted growth, and early death in their offspring. This suggests that the father’s gut microbiota may influence the infant’s health.

Although many studies have demonstrated the link between mothers and infants’ microbiome, little is known about the influence of paternal gut health.

So jamie hackett Researchers from the European Institute of Molecular Biology in Rome and colleagues gave antibiotics to 28 male mice, which reduced the abundance of bacteria in the animals’ gut by a factor of 10 and changed the balance of microbial species.

The rodents, along with 12 other male mice whose antibiotic treatment had been stopped two months earlier and 26 control mice who received no antibiotics, were subsequently mated with females. Together these groups produced more than 400 offspring.

Mice born to mice with compromised gut microbiomes have a range of health problems not seen in mice whose fathers did not take antibiotics or whose drugs were not stopped several weeks before conception. was there. Their birth weight was significantly lower and they were 2.5 times more likely to be severely stunted in the first two weeks of life. Approximately 17 percent of these pups died within their three months of age, compared to only 5 percent of pups fathered by mice in the control group.

How the gut microbiota exerts these effects is unknown. However, further experiments revealed some clues. For example, mice given antibiotics had smaller testes and reduced sperm counts compared to mice not given antibiotics. They also had different levels of certain hormones that affect reproductive health, such as leptin and testosterone, and differences in small molecules that regulate gene expression in sperm.

Mice impregnated by these animals also had changes in their placentas, which were no longer able to provide sufficient nutrients to the fetuses.

“This paper represents a major advance in our understanding of the complex relationship between the gut and reproductive health,” he says. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello at Rutgers University in New Jersey. This is the first time a study has shown that disruption of a father’s gut microbiome can affect a man’s reproductive health, sperm quality, and infant health.

It also shows that the health of the father may be important to the outcome of the pregnancy, Hackett said, as changes in the placenta have been linked to pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia in humans. But this is just speculation, he added, because studies in mice don’t necessarily translate to humans.