Nature: Vaginal or caesarean section, or affect infant microbiome and vaccine response

Childhood vaccines are designed to protect
against a range of infectious diseases associated with childhood.
How well these vaccines interact with the immune response, and how well they induce them, is critical to the protective power that is
generated in infants.
The microbiome is known to play an important role
in the immune response to vaccination.
But little is known about early life and its impact on the composition of the gut microbiome, and subsequent childhood vaccine
responses.

On November 15, 2022, researchers from the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, the University of Edinburgh and other institutions in the Netherlands published a research paper in the journal Nature Communications entitled: Mode of delivery modulates the intestinal microbiota and impacts the response to vaccination
。

The study showed that different modes of delivery, vaginal or caesarean section, were associated
with changes in the newborn's gut microbiome and response to vaccines in specific children.

These findings suggest that the composition of the microbiota due to vaginal delivery is associated with
an enhanced response of healthy infants to specific types of antibodies from two conventional childhood vaccines compared to caesarean section.

The team surveyed 101 babies who had vaginal or caesarean sections to assess their gut microbiome
during the first 12 months of life.
They also assessed antibody responses
at 12-18 months of age to two conventional childhood vaccines (pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines) that directly target respiratory pathogens.

They found that spontaneous delivery was associated with increased levels of Bifidobacterium and Escherichia coli in gut microbes during the first few months of life, responding more strongly to IgG antibodies from both vaccines
.
Importantly, when compared with caesarean section, they showed that the microbiome mediates the link
between mode of delivery and pneumococcal vaccine response.

These findings suggest that the mode of delivery may lead to changes in the microbiome and the immune system's response
to childhood vaccines.
However, the correspondence between antibody level differences and immune protection is still a problem
to be solved.