Lack of detection of a human placenta microbiome in samples from preterm and term deliveries

Microbiome

Jacob S. Leiby¹  Erik L. Clarke¹  Aoife M. Roche¹  Frederic D. Bushman¹  Scott Sherrill-Mix¹  Kevin McCormick¹  Louis J. Taylor¹  Lyanna R. Kessler¹  Casey E. Hofstaedter²  Kyle Bittinger²  Lisa M. Mattei²  Michal A. Elovitz³  Samuel Parry³  Rita Leite³ 

[1] Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine;Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia;Maternal and Child Health Research Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine;

关键词: Placenta;    Shotgun metagenomics;    16S rRNA gene;    Microbiome;    Preterm birth;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40168-018-0575-4

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Historically, the human womb has been thought to be sterile in healthy pregnancies, but this idea has been challenged by recent studies using DNA sequence-based methods, which have suggested that the womb is colonized with bacteria. For example, analysis of DNA from placenta samples yielded small proportions of microbial sequences which were proposed to represent normal bacterial colonization. However, an analysis by our group showed no distinction between background negative controls and placenta samples. Also supporting the idea that the womb is sterile is the observation that germ-free mammals can be generated by sterile delivery of neonates into a sterile isolator, after which neonates remain germ-free, which would seem to provide strong data in support of sterility of the womb. Results To probe this further and to investigate possible placental colonization associated with spontaneous preterm birth, we carried out another study comparing microbiota in placenta samples from 20 term and 20 spontaneous preterm deliveries. Both 16S rRNA marker gene sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing were used to characterize placenta and control samples. We first quantified absolute amounts of bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences using 16S rRNA gene quantitative PCR (qPCR). As in our previous study, levels were found to be low in the placenta samples and indistinguishable from negative controls. Analysis by DNA sequencing did not yield a placenta microbiome distinct from negative controls, either using marker gene sequencing as in our previous work, or with shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Several types of artifacts, including erroneous read classifications and barcode misattribution, needed to be identified and removed from the data to clarify this point. Conclusions Our findings do not support the existence of a consistent placental microbiome, in either placenta from term deliveries or spontaneous preterm births.

【 授权许可】

Unknown