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

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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.