本文選自《經(jīng)濟學人》10月17日刊文章。剖腹產(chǎn)在增加新生兒的存活率、降低孕婦死亡率方面功不可沒，但剖腹產(chǎn)畢竟不是自然生產(chǎn)過程，正是它的好處給人類帶來潛在風險。剖腹產(chǎn)實際是人類干預自然選擇的過程，女性盆腔口徑?jīng)Q定胎兒的頭顱直徑不能過大，否則會難產(chǎn)。在剖腹產(chǎn)出現(xiàn)之前，頭骨過大的胎兒在生產(chǎn)過程中自然淘汰掉了，這就保證了存活下來的新生兒的頭骨尺寸在一定的范圍內(nèi)。但剖腹產(chǎn)的引入則打破了這種自然選擇，這給人類未來命運帶來隱患。本文講述的則是剖腹產(chǎn)的另一種風險——剖腹產(chǎn)新生兒缺乏必要的細菌暴露，比如糞便中的細菌暴露，這可能會影響新生兒免疫系統(tǒng)的發(fā)育，在之后的人生中出現(xiàn)過敏、糖尿病的風險更高。而最新的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在喂新生兒的母乳中加入些許母親的糞便，可以彌補這一缺陷。這雖然有些不可思議，但也許會讓剖腹產(chǎn)新生兒更健康。
選文精講
How to arm Caesarean babies with the gut bacteria they needInto the mouths of babes and sucklingsCHILDBIRTH IS MESSY. When a baby comes out, a lot else comes out with it. Some of this material is inevitable, such as the amniotic fluid that presages birth and the placentawhich follows it. But a fair bit of faeces is discharged, too.- discharge: 這里指“排出”的意思，此外該詞還有“出院、解雇”的意思
分娩是混亂的。當一個嬰兒出生時，很多其他的東西也隨之出來，有些東西是不可避免的，比如預示生產(chǎn)的羊水和隨后會出來的胎盤，但是一部分糞便也會被排出。From an evolutionary perspective, that seems surprising. Exposing newborns to such bacteria-laden excrement looks risky. Yet no mechanism has arisen to stop it happening. Evidence is mounting, moreover, that far from being harmful, this exposure is actually important for the development of the child’s immune system. Interaction with the multitude of microscopic organisms a baby picks up when it is born helps that system to learn friend from foe. Without it, immune disorders like allergies and type-1 diabetes may follow. Components of the gut flora are also involved in digesting certain foodstuffs containing complex carbohydrates, and an unbalance in the relevant microbial mix is implicated inobesity.從進化的角度來看，這似乎很讓人吃驚。將新生兒暴露在這種充滿細菌的糞便中似乎很危險，然而，還沒有一種機制能夠阻止它的發(fā)生。不過越來越多的證據(jù)表明，這種暴露在細菌中不僅沒有害處，反而對兒童免疫系統(tǒng)的發(fā)展非常重要，嬰兒出生時與眾多微生物的相互作用有助于免疫系統(tǒng)的提升。沒有這種接觸過程的話，免疫系統(tǒng)就會紊亂，像過敏、1型糖尿病就可能隨之而來。腸道菌群的部分菌落也參與消化某些含有復雜碳水化合物的食物，而相關微生物組合的不平衡與肥胖有關。Babies born via Caesarean section (ie, surgical removal directly from the womb) do not get such a biological baptism, and their guts are left bacterially bereft as a consequence. That has left doctors wondering how best to give them what they are missing. In the past, researchers have skirted around the central point by swabbing the faces of newborns with bacteria collected from their mothers’ vaginas. To no avail. Willem de Vos and Sture Andersson of the University of Helsinki, have therefore taken the bull by the horns. In a paper just published in Cell they demonstrate that feeding newborns a dose of their mothers’ gut bacteria, in the form of faeces inoculated into breast milk, seems more fruitful.- take the bull by the horns: 不畏艱險
通過剖腹產(chǎn)出生的嬰兒(即通過外科手術直接從子宮中取出)不會有這樣的微生物考驗，結(jié)果他們的內(nèi)臟就沒有這樣的細菌，這就讓醫(yī)生們在想如何用最好的方式彌補這些剖腹產(chǎn)嬰兒所缺失的細菌。過去，研究人員用從新生兒母親的陰道中收集的細菌來擦拭新生兒的臉來解決這個問題，但無濟于事。赫爾辛基大學的威廉·德·沃斯和斯圖爾·安德森因此不畏挫折，在剛剛發(fā)表在《細胞》雜志上的一篇論文中，他們證明給新生兒喂食一定劑量的母體腸道細菌，以糞便的形式注入母乳中，似乎效果更好。
