Polyphenol Enriched Diet Administration During Pregnancy and Lactation Prevents Dysbiosis in Ulcerative Colitis Predisposed Littermates

Neonatal colonization of the gastrointestinal tract depends on mother microbiome, thusmother microbiota dysbiosis is transmitted to the offspring during the delivery and shaped bybreastmilk characteristics. Here we used a murine model of UC predisposition (Winnie-/-) toevaluate the effects of maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation. Using heterozygousbreeders, we obtained both Winnie-/- and C57BL/6 littermates from the same mother andcompared their microbiota at weaning and adult age, using a diet enriched with 1% tomatofruit of a line - named Bronze - highly enriched in bioactive polyphenols, or Control tomato.Females received enriched diets two weeks before the beginning of the breeding and neverstopped for the following six months. No significant effect was observed in regard to thepercentage of Winnie-/- offspring, as with both diets the percentage was about 25% asexpected. Winnie littermates from breeders fed with the Bronze-enriched diet showedreduced dysbiosis at 4 weeks of age if compared with Winnie under the Control tomatodiet.This effectwas thenreducedwhenmice reachedadultage.Conversely, themicrobiota ofC57BL/6 does not change significantly, indicating that fortified mothers-diet significantlycontribute to preventing dysbiosis in geneticallypredisposed offspring, but hasmildeffects onhealthy littermates and adult mice. An overall tendency towards reduced inflammation wasunderlined by the colon weight and the percentage of Foxp3+ cells reduction in Winnie micefed with Bronze diet. Control diet did not show similar tendency.