Association of the salivary microbiome with animal contact during early life and stress-induced immune activation in healthy participants

Urban upbringing in the absence of daily contact with pets compared to rural upbringing in the presence of daily contact with farm animals is associated with a more pronounced immune activation following acute psychosocial stressor exposure induced by the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Here we employed 16S rRNA gene sequencing to test whether this difference in TSST-induced immune activation between urban upbringing in the absence of daily contact with pets compared with rural upbringing in the presence of daily contact with farm animals is associated with differences in the composition of the salivary microbiome.