Dr. Amanda Thompson, Dr. Kelly Houck, and doctoral candidate Hannah Jahnke recently published their research on Caesarean delivery, immune function, and the gut microbiome in the Galápagos in the American Journal of Human Biology.
This work found that in the Galápagos, where over 50% of infants are born by Caesarean, the abundance of microbial taxa in the gut of infants and children differed by mode of delivery. Infants born by caesarean had a higher abundance of Firmicutes and a lower relative abundance of Bacteroidales. Children born by caesarean had a higher abundance of Proteobacteria and Enterobacteriales. These results indicate that mode of delivery has persistent effects on gut microbiome colonization, which could have long-term consequences for health.
Read the article here.
Dr. Thompson is an Associate Professor in Anthropology, Dr. Kelly Houck earned her PhD in the Department of Anthropology at UNC, and Hannah Jahnke is currently a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at UNC. Both Dr. Houck and Hannah Jahnke conducted their dissertation work in the Galápagos Islands.