The human gastrointestinal tract has a diverse population of microorganisms, especially bacteria, fungi, and viruses. These are collectively referred to as the microbiota. Some of these colonies are passed on from mother to child during birth through the vaginal canal. However, babies who are born by cesarean section miss out on this microbiota transfer, and that puts their long-term health at risk since they will be more susceptible to immune-related complications later in life. Now a team of researchers has discovered that a mother’s microbiota can be transferred to an infant after birth through a procedure called fecal microbiota transplantation (“FMT”).
This procedure starts with a mother’s fecal matter being screened for dangerous pathogens and when none are found, the fecal matter is orally transplanted into the infant so that the baby can develop colonies of the same microbes that the biological mother of that infant has in their gut.
During the study, a team of researchers from mainly Helsinki University got fecal samples from seventeen mothers who had delivered by C-section. When those samples were checked for potentially dangerous microbes, only seven samples were found to be safe for oral transplantation to the infants.
The infants were then given the fecal samples orally and they were monitored for any adverse reactions. None were observed. The team then compared the microbes in the guts of those infants with those of other C-section infants who hadn’t got the FMT, as well as the microbiota of infants who had been born vaginally.
Over the three months of observation, the researchers found that the gut microbiota of the FMT babies quickly resembled that of the babies born vaginally while the gut microbes of the other C-section babies who didn’t receive the FMT retained the composition observed at birth.
The researchers concluded that fecal microbiota transplantation after C-section birth was a safe and viable way to confer the benefits of a mother’s microbiota to an infant who would have otherwise missed out on those protective benefits due to not being born vaginally.
This isn’t the first time that fecal microbiota transplantation has been used. The intervention has been used with great success to restore the gut microbiota of adults, as well as to cure a number of health conditions, such as persistent clostridium difficile infections.
The use of this same technique to lower the risk of C-section babies later developing chronic health conditions is therefore a welcome application of FMT.
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