Abstract
With the improvement of living standards and the lack of nutrition awareness during pregnancy, the phenomenon of excessive weight gain (EWG) of pregnancy is increasing. EWG during pregnancy has profound effects on the health of mother and offspring. The role of intestinal flora in regulating metabolic diseases has gradually attracted attention in recent years. The study explored the effect of EWG during pregnancy on gut microbiota, and analyzed the diversity and composition of gut microbiota in pregnant women in third trimester. Fecal samples were collected and divided into: insufficient weight gain (IWG) during pregnancy (group A1, N = 4), and appropriate weight gain (AWG) during pregnancy (group A2, N = 9), and EWG during pregnancy (N = 9 in A3 group). MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis were introduced to investigate relationship of gestational weight gain and maternal gut microbiota. General data analysis showed that gestational weight gain and delivery mode have significant differences among the three groups. The overall level and diversity of intestinal microbiota in A1 and A3 group were increased. Composition of gut microbiota has no difference among three groups at the phylum level, but species of gut microbiota were different. Alpha diversity index analysis showed that the richness of A3 group was increased versus A2 group. EWG during pregnancy affects the abundance and proportion of gut microbiota in the third trimester. Therefore, maintaining moderate weight gain during pregnancy helps to maintain intestinal homeostasis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Data to support the findings of this study is available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.
References
Adak A, Khan MR (2019) An insight into gut microbiota and its functionalities. Cell Mol Life Sci 76(3):473–493
Brown JC, Carson TL, Thompson HJ, Agurs-Collins T (2021) The triple health threat of diabetes, obesity, and cancer: epidemiology, disparities, mechanisms, and interventions. Obesity 29(6):954–959
Cao Z, Yu J, Kang W, Ma Z (2013) Research advances in the gut microbiota and inflammation in obesity. Acta Academiae Medicinae Sinicae 35(4):462–465
Catalano PM, Shankar K (2017) Obesity and pregnancy: mechanisms of short term and long term adverse consequences for mother and child. BMJ 356:j1
Champion ML, Harper LM (2020) Gestational weight gain: update on outcomes and interventions. Curr Diabetes Rep 20(3):11
Council NRIo Medicine, Board FaN, Board on Children Y, and Families, Guidelines CtRIPW, Rasmussen KM, Yaktine AL (2010) Weight gain during pregnancy: reexamining the guidelines. National Academies Press
Gomaa EZ (2020) Human gut microbiota/microbiome in health and diseases: a review. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 113(12):2019–2040
Gomez-Arango LF, Barrett HL, McIntyre HD, Callaway LK, Morrison M, Dekker Nitert M (2016) Connections between the gut microbiome and metabolic hormones in early pregnancy in overweight and obese women. Diabetes 65(8):2214–2223
Goulet O (2015) Potential role of the intestinal microbiota in programming health and disease. Nutr Rev 73(suppl_1):32–40
Heck KL Jr, van Belle G, Simberloff D (1975) Explicit calculation of the rarefaction diversity measurement and the determination of sufficient sample size. Ecology 56(6):1459–1461
Kaur J (2014) A comprehensive review on metabolic syndrome. Cardiol Res Pract 2014:943162
Kc D, Sumner R, Lippmann S (2020) Gut microbiota and health. Postgrad Med 132(3):274–274
Kelly AC, Powell TL, Jansson T (2020) Placental function in maternal obesity. Clin Sci 134(8):961–984
Kemp PF, Aller JY (2004) Bacterial diversity in aquatic and other environments: what 16S rDNA libraries can tell us. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 47(2):161–177
Liu B, Liu X, Liang Z, Wang J (2021) Gut microbiota in obesity. World J Gastroenterol 27(25):3837
Pan J, Liu L, Mu J (2021) Research progress of gut microbiota and human health. J Shandong Norm Univ (nat Sci) 36(4):337–365
Paredes C, Hsu RC, Tong A, Johnson JR (2021) Obesity and pregnancy. NeoReviews 22(2):e78–e87
Wang Y, Zhou Q, Wang A, Yang X, Xu Q, Shi Z, Lu D, Zhao M (2017) Effects of maternal body weight on the morbidity of gestational diabetes mellitus, changes of intestinal microflora composition and prognosis. J Med Res 46(2):70–73
Xu Y, Zhang J, Zhang M, Sun Z, Ban Y, Wang B, Hou X, Cai Y, Li J (2020) Effect of gestational weight gain on gut microflora changes and maternal and infant prognosis in late pregnancy. World Latest Med Inf 20(6):4–6
Yang W, Han F, Gao X, Chen Y, Ji L, Cai X (2017) Relationship between gestational weight gain and pregnancy complications or delivery outcome. Sci Rep 7(1):12531
Zhou L, **ao X (2018) The role of gut microbiota in the effects of maternal obesity during pregnancy on offspring metabolism. Biosci Rep 38(2):586
Zhou Y, Li H, Liu J (2022) Prepregnancy obesity, excessive gestational weight gain and offspring health. Chin J Reprod Health 33(04):386–390
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
FF and XS designed the experiments and prepared the manuscript. FW, JD, and LX prepared figures. All authors reviewed, edited and approved the manuscript.
