Katherine M Kennedy, Marcus C de Goffau, Maria Elisa Perez-Muñoz, Marie-Claire Arrieta, Fredrik Bäckhed, Peer Bork, Thorsten Braun, Frederic D Bushman, Joel Dore, Willem M de Vos, Ashlee M Earl, Jonathan A Eisen, Michal A Elovitz, Stephanie C Ganal-Vonarburg, Michael G Gänzle, Wendy S Garrett, Lindsay J Hall, Mathias W Hornef, Curtis Huttenhower, Liza Konnikova, Sarah Lebeer, Andrew J Macpherson, Ruth C Massey, Alice Carolyn McHardy, Omry Koren, Trevor D Lawley, Ruth E Ley, Liam O'Mahony, Paul W O'Toole, Eric G Pamer, Julian Parkhill, Jeroen Raes, Thomas Rattei, Anne Salonen, Eran Segal, Nicola Segata, Fergus Shanahan, Deborah M Sloboda, Gordon C S Smith, Harry Sokol, Tim D Spector, Michael G Surette, Gerald W Tannock, Alan W Walker, Moran Yassour, Jens Walter
Whether the human fetus and the prenatal intrauterine environment (amniotic fluid and placenta) are stably colonized by microbial communities in a healthy pregnancy remains a subject of debate. Here we evaluate recent studies that characterized microbial populations in human fetuses from the perspectives of reproductive biology, microbial ecology, bioinformatics, immunology, clinical microbiology and gnotobiology, and assess possible mechanisms by which the fetus might interact with microorganisms. Our analysis indicates that the detected microbial signals are likely the result of contamination during the clinical procedures to obtain fetal samples or during DNA extraction and DNA sequencing...
January 2023: Nature