Decrease in abundance of bacteria of the genus Bifidobacterium in gut microbiota may be related to pre-eclampsia progression in women from East China

Abstract

Background: Pre-eclampsia (PE) can result in severe damage to maternal and fetal health. It has been reported that gut microbiota (GM) had important roles in regulating the metabolic and inflammatory responses of the mother. However, investigations on GM in PE are rare.
 Objective: The objective of the present study was to investigate the changes of GM in PE and how to alter the GM composition in PE by dietary or dietary supplements.
 Design: We analyzed the composition changes in GM as well as the relationship between bacteria of different genera and clinical indices by amplifying the V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene in 12 PE patients and eight healthy pregnant women in East China.
 Results: In the PE group, the Observed Species Index was lower than that in the control group, indicating that the α-diversity of the microbiome in the PE group decreased. At phylum, family, and genus levels, the relative abundance of different bacteria in PE patients displayed substantial differences to those from healthy women. We noted a decreased abundance of bacteria of the phylum Actinobacteria (P = 0.042), decreased abundance of bacteria of the family Bifidobacteriaceae (P = 0.039), increased abundance of bacteria of the genus Blautia (P = 0.026) and Ruminococcus (P = 0.048), and decreased abundance of bacteria of the genus Bifidobacterium (P = 0.038). Among three enriched genera, bacteria of the genus Bifidobacterium showed a negative correlation with the systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and dyslipidemia, which involved glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, and the oxidative-phosphorylation pathway. The increased abundance of bacteria of the genera Blautia and Ruminococcus was positively correlated with obesity and dyslipidemia, which involved lipid metabolism, glycosyltransferases, biotin metabolism, and the oxidative-phosphorylation pathways. Moreover, women in the PE group ate more than women in the control group, so fetuses were more prone to overnutrition in the PE group.
 Conclusion: There is a potential for GM dysbiosis in PE patients, and they could be prone to suffer from metabolic syndrome. We speculate that alterations in the abundance of bacteria of certain genera (e.g. increased abundance of Blautia and Ruminococcus, and decreased abundance of Bifidobacterium) were associated with PE development to some degree. Our data could help to monitor the health of pregnant women and may be helpful for preventing and assisting treatment of PE by increasing dietary fiber or probiotics supplement.

Maternal gut microbiota Bifidobacterium promotes placental morphogenesis, nutrient transport and fetal growth in mice

“…B. breve UCC2003 also regulates responses at the gut barrier, inducing homeostatic epithelial cell programming, and protecting against inflammatory insults [ 28 , 42 ]. Importantly, pregnancy is accompanied by increasing Bifidobacterium abundance in the gut of women and mice [ 5 ] and alterations in the abundance of Bifidobacterium are linked to the development of serious pregnancy complications like preeclampsia [ 43 ]. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the maternal gut microbiota regulate embryonic organ growth by promoting fetal neurodevelopment [ 44 ].…”

Deep metagenomic characterization of gut microbial community and function in preeclampsia

“…Blautia is a genus containing over 20 anaerobic species that are widely present in the mammalian gut ( Liu et al., 2021 ). As a dominant genus in the intestinal microbiota, the increased abundance of genera Blautia ( Eckburg et al., 2005 ; Round and Mazmanian, 2009 ; Human Microbiome Project, 2012 ) and Ruminococcus was positively correlated with irritable bowel syndrome ( Rajilic-Stojanovic et al., 2011 ), ulcerative colitis ( Nishino et al., 2018 ), gestational diabetes mellitus ( Crusell et al., 2018 ), preeclampsia ( Lv et al., 2019 ; Liu et al., 2021 ; Miao et al., 2021 ), pregestational weight, hyperlipidemia ( Miao et al., 2021 ), obesity and dyslipidemia, which involved lipid metabolism, glycosyl-transferases, biotin metabolism, and the oxidative-phosphorylation pathway ( Miao et al., 2021 ). Maternal blood pressure and liver enzyme levels were positively correlated to Ruminococcus ( Lv et al., 2019 ).…”

Characteristics of the gut microbiota in pregnant women with fetal growth restriction

“…Human gut microbiota plays a unique part in metabolism, immunity, and nutrition absorption [8]. A variety of studies on pregnant women have identified a link between changes in fecal bacterial abundance and the pathogenesis of certain disorders, such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), preeclampsia (PE), maternal obesity [9][10][11][12]. More encouragingly, probiotic supplements might be an assistant treatment strategy for these complications.…”