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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: Microbial miracle workers

The human microbiome is a trending topic in the science world right now. It refers to all the microbes — like bacteria and yeast, both good and bad — that live in and on a person’s body.

Your body is vastly outnumbered by its residents. Even accounting for the fact that you are made of millions of cells, your body is still outnumbered by microbial cells about 10 to one. Most of these guys are permanent residents that help our bodies, and only a few occasional hitch hikers can harm us in any way.

The microbiome is like an entire ecosystem, albeit a bit smaller. The microbial community in the mouth, for example, can be as complex as an entire rainforest, with just as many creatures eating what they can and fighting for survival. Unlike rainforest animals, these critters in your mouth are incredibly small and single-celled.

Sometimes when a person’s microbiome is disturbed — perhaps from antibiotic treatment or extremely poor diet — harmful pathogens can take over and cause disease. In most cases, we can get our “good” microbes back by downing some yogurt, but sometimes more drastic measures are needed.

Some serious infections can only be solved with a process known as a fecal transplant. Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is: an inoculation with the microbes of a healthy person.

However, it may surprise you that the bulk of your microbial community comes not from what you or your doctor put in your body. It is actually given to you by your mother at birth.

A mother’s vagina has its own incredibly distinct microbiome passed down to newborn babies and designed by nature to help them develop.

Scientists have shown there is evidence suggesting that C-section babies, who are born surgically and do not receive their mother’s microbes, have an increased risk of obesity, asthma and other 
ailments.

C-section infants also have different microbial communities, in their guts and elsewhere, than naturally born babies. No one has found a direct link between these microbial communities and health later in life, but some scientists are working on a solution nonetheless.

Maria Dominguez-Bello, a microbial ecologist at New York University, set out to study the effects of birth microbial community on human infants.

She started by recruiting some expectant mothers: seven who gave birth vaginally and 11 who had C-sections. Of the C-section babies, four were given an experimental microbial transfer in which the babies were rubbed with a swab covered in their mother’s microbes.

Their results showed the swabbed babies had microbial communities more like those of naturally born babies. In this study they only sampled babies’ microbes within the first month of life, but the team has plans to scale up and follow more newborns’ microbes during their 
first year.

Next time you see your mom, give her a hug. She’s given you more than either of you had ever known.

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