2017 Volume 31 Issue 1 Pages 33-41
Colonization of gut microbiota of offspring occurs on the basis of maternal resident flora during the perinatal periods. The maternal gut microbiota links the relationship between mother and offspring, and an adequate relationship between mother and offspring is essential for the development of offspring. Many lines of evidences have shown that various environmental factors including maternal infection, maternal stress, and maternal high fat diet-induced obesity during the perinatal periods can influence the colonization of the gut microbiota of offspring, resulting in disturbance in the development of the brains of offspring. We performed an experiment in which the gut microbiota of pregnant mice was perturbed by the administration of non-absorbable antibiotics. The results showed that the disturbance of the maternal gut microbiota altered the behavior of the offspring. In this review, I discuss the possible function of maternal gut microbiota during the perinatal periods in the development of the brains of offspring.
