“Adverse childhood experiences are associated with poor health outcomes in adulthood including obesity, psychiatric symptoms, and elevated levels of inflammatory markers.”
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“Our previous work found adverse childhood experiences are associated with altered gut microbiota composition.”
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“In the present work, we examined adverse childhood experiences associations with gut microbiota and peripheral measures of inflammation in pregnant women with or without obesity, and explored potential modifying factors including diet and depressive symptoms.”
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“107 women completed questionnaires and provided stool in the third trimester. Adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with BMI and depressive symptom severity but not with gut microbiota composition.”
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“Depressive symptoms were significantly negatively associated with abundance of gut Bifidobacterium longum and positively associated with Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.”
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“Path analysis revealed that adverse childhood experiences predicted pre-pregnancy BMI which predicted elevated inflammatory markers. Adverse childhood experiences also predicted more severe depressive symptoms in pregnancy, which was associated with gut microbiome composition.”
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Finally, adverse childhood experiences interacted with dietary intake of sugar and whole grains to impact markers of inflammation, the gut microbiome, and enzymes produced by gut microbiota.”
“Adverse childhood experiences led to two risk pathways in pregnancy: one in which high pre-pregnancy BMI was linked with high levels of serum inflammatory markers during pregnancy, and the other in which greater depressive symptom severity was associated with alterations to the gut microbiome.”
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“Further, data suggested adverse childhood experiences may influence the metabolic potential of the gut microbiome.”
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L.Hantsoo et al
The impact of adverse childhood experiences on gut microbiota and markers of inflammation is mediated by obesity and depression
Brain, Behvior, and Immunity — Volume 134 — May 2026