Overview
- The peer-reviewed study, led by Boston Children's Hospital neonatologist Brian Kalish, maps how maternal microbiome shifts or immune activation reshape fetal brain immune signaling.
- Researchers integrated high-resolution MERFISH spatial transcriptomics with single-cell RNA sequencing to build a developmental atlas of immune gene expression in embryonic mouse brains.
- Experiments modeled mid- and late-gestation by inducing maternal immune activation or depleting the microbiome with antibiotics to examine independent and combined effects.
- Male embryos showed reduced neuronal proliferation and abnormal migration after maternal gut-immune perturbations, with dysregulation of the CXCL12–CXCR7 chemokine axis implicated.
- The resource provides a publicly reported spatial transcriptomic dataset and preclinical insights that may inform future early interventions but require further validation.