ArticleScientific reports2022
Comprehensive human amniotic fluid metagenomics supports the sterile womb hypothesis.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Intra-amniotic infection: diagnosis, nomenclature, clinical significance, management, and microbiologic tools used for the diagnosis.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Viromic profiling of amniotic fluid reveals distinct viral communities associated with maternal health status.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Metagenomic next-generation sequencing for efficient detection of human parvovirus B19 in amniotic fluid: a case study of diagnosis and prenatal management of fetal infection.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Unveiling balanced prenatal microbial colonization in amniotic fluid through an integrated culture and sequencing approach.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- No microorganism was detected in amniotic fluid of healthy pregnancies from the second trimester to the delivery.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Review
- Transcriptomic analysis reveals the anti-cancer effect of gestational mesenchymal stem cell secretome.Stem cells translational medicine · 2024Article
- The dogma of the sterile uterus revisited: does microbial seeding occur during fetal life in humans and animals?Reproduction (Cambridge, England) · 2024Review
- Maternal microbiota communicates with the fetus through microbiota-derived extracellular vesicles.Microbiome · 2023Article
- Challenging the Hypothesis of in Utero Microbiota Acquisition in Healthy Canine and Feline Pregnancies at Term: Preliminary Data.Veterinary sciences · 2023Article
- Bioinformatic Tools for NGS-Based Metagenomics to Improve the Clinical Diagnosis of Emerging, Re-Emerging and New Viruses.Viruses · 2023Review
- Microbiota-Associated HAF-EVs Regulate Monocytes by Triggering or Inhibiting Inflammasome Activation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Beyond the Gut, Emerging Microbiome Areas of Research: A Focus on Early-Life Microbial Colonization.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Window to the Womb: Amniotic Fluid and Postnatal Outcomes.International journal of women's health · 2023Review
- Bovine neonatal microbiome origins: a review of proposed microbial community presence from conception to colostrum.Translational animal science · 2023Article
- Optimizing Maternal Microbiome: Role in Improved Conception and Pregnancy Outcome.Reproductive medicine and biologyReview
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
As metagenomic approaches for detecting infectious agents have improved, each tissue that was once thought to be sterile has been found to harbor a variety of microorganisms. Controversy still exists over the status of amniotic fluid, which is part of an immunologically privileged zone that is required to prevent maternal immune system rejection of the fetus. Due to this privilege, the exclusion of microbes has been proposed to be mandatory, leading to the sterile womb hypothesis. Since nucleic acid yields from amniotic fluid are very low, contaminating nucleic acid found in water, reagents and the laboratory environment frequently confound attempts to address this hypothesis. Here we present metagenomic criteria for microorganism detection and a metagenomic method able to be performed with small volumes of starting material, while controlling for exogenous contamination, to circumvent these and other pitfalls. We use this method to show that human mid-gestational amniotic fluid has no detectable virome or microbiome, supporting the sterile womb hypothesis.
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Registered trials
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