According to a recent American study, the presence of chemical substances in the vaginal metabolome of certain women, such as cosmetics and hygiene products, could lead to premature deliveries.
En France, a baby is born premature every 8 minutes, i.e. approximately 60,000 premature babies per year, counts the association SOS Préma. These high-risk births, which occur before the 37th week of pregnancy, can be caused by a multitude of factors, ranging from high blood pressure to hemorrhages and the premature rupture of membranes (the bag of waters). But according to a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology and picked up by Why Doctoranother factor could be at the origin of these early deliveries: the presence of non-biological chemicals – found in cosmetics and hygiene products – that accumulate in the vagina of expectant mothers.
A study of 232 pregnant women
To prove this link, a team of researchers from Columbia University followed 232 women in their second trimester of pregnancy until the birth of their child, paying particular attention to their “vaginal metabolome”. This barbaric name designates all the small molecules, from the cells of the body or from external sources, which is found in the microbiome of a part of the body. As Professor Tal Korem summarizes in a communiquéstudying the metabolome amounts to making “a functional reading of the ecosystem as a whole”.
On the same subject ⋙ In Strasbourg, pregnant women protected against endocrine disruptors, by prescription⋙ In summer, pregnant women would have 44% more risk of having a natural pregnancy termination
Their research has identified more than 700 different metabolites – an intermediate or metabolic organic compound – in the vagina of the patients examined. Among them, 80 experienced a premature delivery. The study reports several metabolites that were significantly higher in the latter, compared to women whose pregnancies had come to an end.
“Many of these metabolites are chemicals that are not produced by the human body or microbes. These are what we call ‘xenobiotics’, continues Professor Tal Korem. Although we did not identify the source of these xenobiotics in our participants, all could be found in cosmetics and hygiene products.”
Predict premature births
This research is all the more important since it is considered that approximately one million children die each year from complications of premature birth, underlines theWorld Health Organization (WHO). By identifying metabolite levels with precision in pregnant women, science could therefore predict, sometimes several months in advance, which patients are most likely to give birth prematurely, and support them accordingly.
Aware of this major issue, the research team has developed an algorithm capable of detecting these famous metabolites, in order to pave the way for early diagnosis. Despite its accurate predictions, the tool still needs to be improved and validated before it can be used in the clinic, reports Science Daily.
Read also ⋙ What happens in the body when you deny pregnancy?
⋙ All about the “pregnancy nose”, this amazing physical transformation that affects some pregnant women
⋙ The waiting period to procreate after a natural termination of pregnancy revised downwards