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Natural birth, healthy intestine

A messy birth makes for babies with better digestion

A new research has found that bacterial molecules encountered at natural birth could be important for a healthy intestine.

A messy birth could be good for the baby's digestion, according to researchers in Germany, who have found evidence that baby mice squeezing through the birth canal swallow bacterial molecules that help their gut grow healthily. The finding suggests that kids born by caesarean might miss out.

Swarms of friendly bacteria normally live in our guts, and cells lining the intestinal tubes do not attack them. Mathias Hornef at the University Clinic of Freiburg, Germany, and his colleagues, have found that, in mice at least, these intestinal cells `learn'.

The team extracted intestinal cells from mice embryos before birth and exposed them to a component of bacteria. The embryonic cells reacted and produced inflammatory molecules. But the same gut cells from one-day-old newborn mice or adult mice did not. Somehow, the cells in the more developed mice had learned to ignore the bacterial trigger.

The researchers think that bacterial scraps naturally slopping around in the birth canal and mother's faeces are swallowed by the baby mice as they make their entry into the world. These molecules pass down into the gut, where they stimulate the gut cells; a single exposure is enough to teach the cells to tolerate friendly bugs in the future.

In theory, this could mean that the intestines of babies born by caesarean are less welcoming to gut bacteria — perhaps with long-lasting effects for the babies' health. ``It's a very interesting speculation,'' Hornef says.

The results may also have implications for adults with intestinal problems, notes Bruce Vallance from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. — (ANI)

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