Promoting gut health (symbiosis) with prebiotic fibre for prevention and/or reduction of allergic disease, such as eczema, asthma and food allergies
Investigators: Debbie Palmer, Susan Prescott, Desiree Silva, Rachelle Pretorius.
External collaborators: Claus Christopherson (Edith Cowan University and Curtin University), Jeffrey Keelan, Karen Simmer and Valerie Verhasselt (University of Western Australia), Ravisha Srinivasjois (Joondalup Health Campus), Johan Garssen (Utrecht University, The Netherlands), and Maria Jenmalm (Linköping University, Sweden).
We now know that a baby’s immune system begins to develop even before birth, and that the mother’s diet and her environment in pregnancy can have an important influence. Research also now shows that the mother’s gut health may have important effects on the immune development of her baby.
‘Prebiotics’ is a general term for non-digestible dietary fibre that promote health and well-being by inducing the growth and/or activity of beneficial gut bacteria. Prebiotics occur naturally in grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit and breast milk. The supplement and dose to be used in this study has the demonstrated prebiotic properties of a high fibre diet, including favourable effects on gut bacteria and immune health.
We have finished recruiting 652 pregnant women in Western Australia for this study who consumed either a prebiotic supplement or a placebo supplement from 18-20 weeks gestation until their baby was 6 months of age. This study is investigating whether supplementing the mother’s diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding with the prebiotic fibre will reduce the development of allergies in her child.
This project is funded by the NHMRC (ID1099480). Trial registration number: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN 12615001075572.
Trial protocol publication: Debra J. Palmer, Jeffrey Keelan, Johan Garssen, Karen Simmer, Maria C. Jenmalm, Ravisha Srinivasjois, Desiree Silva, Susan L. Prescott. Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial investigating the effects of maternal prebiotic fibre dietary supplementation from mid-pregnancy to six months’ post-partum on child allergic disease outcomes. Nutrients 2022;14(13):2753. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14132753