Does cross-fostering immediately after birth induce a permanent microbiota shift that is shaped by the nursing mother?
The results show that cross-fostering is an effective means to induce an early and maintained shift in the commensal microbiota. This will allow for the evaluation of a prolonged microbial shift and its effects on disease pathogenesis. Cross-fostering will also eliminate variation within control models by normalizing the commensal microbiota between different strains of mice.
In malaria-negative women, maternal HIV-1 disease severity was significantly associated with increased prevalence of LBW and PTD. Such an association was not found in the malaria-infected women.