Mediterranean diet impact on gut microbiome during pregnancy

Objective: This work aimed to explore the impact of the Mediterranean Diet (MD) on the gut microbial composition of a cohort of pregnant women at weeks 20, 28 and 36 of their pregnancy. Methods: Stool samples were collected from pregnant women at weeks 20, 28, and 36 of their pregnancy. A questionnaire was used to determine a Mediterranean Diet Index (MDI) and classify the participants according to their alignment with the MD. The microbial composition was assessed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Diversity and differential abundance analysis were performed to evaluate the impact of the MD on microbial composition. In previous work, Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) was used for the metabolic profiling of serum and urine of the participants at the same time points. Thus, we integrated the datasets to explore the correlation between microbial composition and inflammation metabolic markers. Results: The microbial composition of the stool samples of participants at weeks 20 and 28 of pregnancy was significantly different between pregnant women with a high MDI and those with low MDI. However, these differences were no longer significant at week 36. Moreover, the microbial diversity was significantly higher in women with a high MDI compared to those with low MDI. Our results suggest that the MD can promote the growth of certain bacteria taxa, which are associated with an anti-inflammatory effect.