, 2003 and Vallor et al., 2001). During pregnancy, steroid hormones such as progesterone and estradiol stimulate high levels of glycogen deposition onto vaginal epithelium further promoting the growth of favorable acidophilic vaginal

bacteria like Lactobacillus. However, these hormones also play a significant role in immunosuppression during pregnancy. While this effect is adaptive as it allows tolerance of the developing offspring, it may also increase maternal vulnerability to environmental selleck chemicals llc challenges ( Trowsdale and Betz, 2006 and Zuk and Stoehr, 2002). Stress during pregnancy can exaggerate the normal physiological immunosuppression, thereby increasing maternal vulnerability to genitourinary infection and its related obstetrical risks including associations with neurodevelopmental disorders. For instance, in a recent epidemiological study, mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder reported greater frequency and severity of vaginal bacterial infections during pregnancy ( Zerbo et al., 2013). Importantly, recurrent vaginal bacterial and fungal infections can trigger a variety of local and global responses that may result in the eventual loss of the beneficial CAL-101 cost Lactobacillus-dominant vaginal ecosystem ( Gupta et al., 1998 and Ehrstrom et al., 2005). The downstream effects of stress-related Lactobacillus depletion on maternal-infant microbial transmission,

host metabolism, and immune function remain to be examined, but likely include important consequences for the developing brain. Two different modes of maternal-infant transmission have been proposed: 1) horizontal, where the infant’s predominant microbial acquisition is from the external environment, and 2) vertical, where there is maternal transmission of vaginal microbes during parturition (Bright and Bulgheresi, 2010). Emerging evidence, however, suggests that vertical transmission primarily accounts

for the initial colonization of the infant gut, which can influence maturation of the gastrointestinal tract and ensure the proper extraction of energy and macromolecules essential for normal development (Bright and Bulgheresi, 2010, Cilieborg found et al., 2012, Collado et al., 2012 and Mackie et al., 1999). Recent appreciation for the influence of this mother-infant microbial transmission on offspring development has sparked new interest in understanding the potential connection between perturbations during pregnancy and early life programming. At the turn of the twentieth century, French pediatrician Henry Tissier proposed that human infants develop within a sterile environment, with primary microbial exposure occurring through contact of the newborn with maternal vaginal microbiota (Tissier, 1900). However, recent studies have cast some reservations on the ‘sterile’ womb hypothesis (Funkhouser and Bordenstein, 2013).