Collaborative Research: Biocultural context linking the gut microbiome, iron, and reproduction

种族主义的生活和生理嵌入经验（“具体化”）已被提出用于解释健康差异。在美国，由于缺铁性贫血，黑人母亲的发病率和死亡率高得不成比例。在生物文化和进化考虑的基础上，一个体现框架提供了一个特别相关但尚未得到充分研究的视角，来看待肠道健康在铁状态下的作用，这是美国黑人女性生活经历和生殖结果之间的关键联系。该项目通过一个社区工作组参与研究的设计、执行和传播，并通过培训生物人类学中代表性不足的学生，加强了美国研究人员与妇幼社区组织之间的关系。本研究采用关键的生物培养方法和生活史理论框架来了解经验、肠道微生物群、铁状态和生殖如何相互作用，从而在美国女性中造成健康差异。具体而言，本研究将评估：1)肠道微生物组是否是女性种族主义经历与其铁含量之间的体现途径；2)影响后代大小、出生时间以及怀孕、分娩和产后缺铁风险的因素。采用纵向研究设计，从怀孕早期到产后6个月，对女性进行长期跟踪；数据收集于四个时间点，涉及女性在种族主义、压力、饮食、铁状态生物标志物、微生物组组成和功能以及生殖结果方面的经历。量化肠道微生物组成和功能的方法包括第三代测序和代谢组学分析。我们预测黑人女性的社会经历和饮食与促炎细菌的高富集有关，而促炎细菌又与较差的铁状态和母亲和婴儿较差的生殖结果有关。这项工作与对参与者生活中种族主义背景的定性探索相结合，将有助于建立一个生物文化背景，以了解孕产妇种族健康差异。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The lived and physiologically embedded experience (‘embodiment’) of racism has been proposed to account for health disparities. In the United States there are disproportionately high rates of sickness and death among Black mothers due to iron deficiency anemia. A framework of embodiment, informed by both biocultural and evolutionary considerations, offers a particularly relevant yet understudied lens to look the role of gut health in iron status as a key nexus linking lived experience and reproductive outcomes among U.S. Black women. This project strengthens the relationships between researchers and maternal-child community organizations in the U.S. by engaging a community task force in the design, execution, and dissemination of the research and through the training of underrepresented students in biological anthropology. This study uses both critical biocultural approach and a life history theory framework to understand how experience, the gut microbiome, iron status, and reproduction interact to create health disparities among women in the U.S. Specifically, this study will assess: 1) whether the gut microbiome is a pathway of embodiment between women’s experiences of racism and their iron status, and 2) factors affecting offspring size, timing of birth, and risk of iron deficiency during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. A longitudinal study design is used that will follow women over time, from early pregnancy to 6 months postpartum; data are collected at four time points regarding women’s experience of racism, stress, diet, iron status biomarkers, microbiome composition and function, and reproductive outcomes. Methods to quantify gut microbiome composition and function include third generation sequencing and metabolomic analysis. We predict that Black women’s social experiences and diet are associated with higher enrichment of pro-inflammatory bacteria, which are in turn associated with poorer iron status and poorer reproductive outcomes for mother and infant. This work, combined with qualitative exploration of the contexts of racism in participants’ lives, will contribute to building a biocultural context for understanding maternal racial health disparities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.