In recent years, science has been continually rediscovering the importance of our gut. A veritable “second brain,” it harbors billions of bacteria that constantly communicate with our body. Today, a new study takes this a step further by focusing on a key period: pregnancy. What if the expectant mother’s microbiota could, from the very beginning, influence her child’s brain development?
Deciphering: how an inflammatory molecule acts on the fetal brain
Published in The Journal of Immunology , this research focuses on a molecule well-known to immunologists: interleukin-17a (IL-17a). Usually associated with conditions such as psoriasis or multiple sclerosis, it could also have an impact on neurological development before birth. To test this, scientists worked with pregnant mice. The result: those whose gut microbiota was more prone to triggering an inflammatory response (and therefore producing more IL-17a) gave birth to offspring whose behavior resembled that observed in autism: stereotypies, social avoidance, etc. This striking correlation suggests that the mother’s bacterial environment could play a role well before birth.
