Liu ZZ, Sun JH, Wang WJ. Gut microbiota in gastrointestinal diseases during pregnancy. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(10): 2976-2989 [PMID: 35647135 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i10.2976]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wen-Jing Wang, PhD, Associate Professor, BGI-Shenzhen, Building 11, Beishan Industrial Zone, Yantian District, Shenzhen 518083, Guangdong Province, China. wangwenjing@genomics.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Microbiology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Jing-Hua Sun, College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Author contributions: Wang WJ designed the study; Liu ZZ, Sun JH and Wang WJ collected the references and data; Liu ZZ and Wang WJ wrote the paper; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Received: March 18, 2021 Peer-review started: March 18, 2021 First decision: July 3, 2021 Revised: July 18, 2021 Accepted: March 7, 2022 Article in press: March 7, 2022 Published online: April 6, 2022
Abstract
Gut microbiota (GM) is a micro-ecosystem composed of all microorganisms in the human intestine. The interaction between GM and the host plays an important role in maintaining normal physiological functions in the host. Dysbiosis of the GM may cause various diseases. GM has been demonstrated to be associated with human health and disease, and changes during individual development and disease. Pregnancy is a complicated physiological process. Hormones, the immune system, metabolism, and GM undergo drastic changes during pregnancy. Gastrointestinal diseases during pregnancy, such as hepatitis, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, and pre-eclampsia, can affect both maternal and fetal health. The dysregulation of GM during pregnancy may lead to a variety of diseases, including gastrointestinal diseases. Herein, we review recent research articles on GM in pregnancy-related gastrointestinal diseases, discuss the interaction of the GM with the host under normal physiological conditions, gastrointestinal diseases, and pregnancy-specific disorders. As more attention is paid to reproductive health, the pathogenic mechanism of GM in gastrointestinal diseases during pregnancy will be further studied to provide a theoretical basis for the use of probiotics to treat these diseases.
Core Tip: Pregnancy is a complicated physiological process, with interactions between pregnancy hormones, the immune system, metabolism and gut microbiota. The dysregulation between these systems can cause pregnancy-specific diseases, including pregnancy-specific gastrointestinal diseases. Here we summarize the current opinions on dysbiosis associated with pregnancy-related gastrointestinal diseases including pre-eclampsia, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, hyperemesis gravidarum and constipation. The composition of gut microbiota changes dramatically during these diseases.
