To explore the characteristics of oral and intestinal microbiota of pregnant women with hypothyroidism during pregnancy, and to find the correlations between the changes of flora and pregnancy outcome of pregnant women with hypothyroidism during pregnancy.
In this study, oral and intestinal microbial composition was surveyed using 16S rRNA sequencing approach in 61 pregnant women (30 with hypothyroidism and 31 normal controls). Sequentially, we validated the differential microbial features using Quantitative Real-Time PCR (QPCR) approach of 10 randomly selected pregnant women (5 with hypothyroidism and 5 normal controls). Furthermore, general clinical data and serological indices were added to the analysis to examine the links between oral and intestinal microbiota and pregnancy outcomes.
The 16S rRNA results showed that the relative abundances of Gammaproteobacteria of pregnant women in the hypothyroidism group were higher than those in the control group, while the levels of Firmicutes in the control group were higher than those in the hypothyroidism group. The serum CRP level, the weight gain during pregnancy and the incidence of fetal distress in the hypothyroidism group were higher than control group. The QPCR results also showed the same changes of the intestinal in the two groups.
There were significant differences in the oral and intestinal microbiota between pregnant women with hypothyroidism and normal pregnant women. The changes of microbiota is one of the factors influencing the occurrence and development of hypothyroidism during pregnancy.

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