In this short monologue, Dr. David Perlmutter explains emerging research suggesting that a newborn’s gut microbiome may begin forming before birth, via microbes present in the placenta. He contrasts the traditional view that the womb is sterile with a new Nature article reporting that placental tissue from 200 pregnancies contains a variety of bacterial species, a finding led by researcher Indriya Misorekar using advanced sequencing techniques. Perlmutter discusses how vaginal birth traditionally inoculates infants with microbes, but the placental microbiome could also seed the infant’s gut and shape immune development. He highlights potential clinical implications: the ability to profile placental microbes could help prevent allergies, asthma, and preterm birth, and may lead to pre‑partum interventions to optimize maternal placental flora. He concludes by noting the rapid evolution of microbiome science and the need to stay informed.
Chapters
Hello, I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. We have written about and talked about and interviewed people, the idea of the very important event of being born, certainly something important for each and every one of us. The mechanics of being born, however, is what I'm referring to, whether a child is born by cesarean section versus being born vaginally. Very important, it turns out, because passing through the vaginal birth canal inoculates a child, anoints a child, if you will, with various types of microbes that form the seeds of his or her gut microbiome. But it turns out that new research is revealing that the placenta may actually help to form a newborn's gut microbiome. and child's ultimately microbiome. We've had this notion that the womb and the placenta were pretty much sterile and didn't really play any important role in terms of transmitting microbial information to that new person being created. But in a new report just published in the journal Nature entitled, Could Baby's First Bacteria Take Root Before Birth? A really interesting idea has been explored since 2011. The researcher is Indriya Misorekar, and she looked at the placentas, I believe, of 200 individuals, and actually through some very sophisticated new technology has been able to identify various organisms that are actually quite common in the placenta, meaning interestingly that there is this microbial interaction with the developing human embryo that seems to be going on, what it actually means in terms of creating that individual, I think certainly remains to be seen. That said, I think moving forward that will be explored and ultimately ideas centered on what a mother can do to improve her placenta flora may in fact be something that is considered. Let me read to you a quote from the Nature article, and I would urge you to link to the article because there is actually a video interview with the researcher. But here's what the article states. If that is true and bacteria are a normal, perhaps even crucial part of pregnancy, they could have an important role in shaping the developing immune system. Scientists might be able to find ways to shift the microbial composition in the womb And possibly ward off allergies, asthma, and other conditions. They might also be able to uncover microbial profiles associated with preterm birth or other complications during pregnancy, which could help illuminate why they occur. So, hard to imagine what the technology is going to be that'll allow us prepartum to analyze the bacterial constituents of the placenta. But that said, you can bet someone's going to be working on it. And as the Nature article talked about, this may really give us a leg up in terms of very, very early intervention to really accentuate the health of the newborn. So really interesting stuff. The science related to the microbiome is certainly evolving day by day and You know, our mission is to keep you on top of that science. So thanks for joining me. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. Bye for now.
