[The Svedberg seminar] – Female sex hormones and the human microbiome
September 18 @ 15:15 – 16:15 CEST
Luisa Hugerth
Assistant Professor
DDLS Fellow
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, UU
Bio
Luisa Hugerth has a background in molecular biology and biomedicine, but got her PhD in 2016 at KTH Royal Institute of Technology with an analysis of microbial community time-series in the Baltic Sea. After that, Dr. Hugerth spent 6 years at the Centre for Translational Microbiome Research in Karolinska Institutet, where she studied the human microbiome in functional bowel disorders, before becoming deeply involved in research on the microbiome of pregnant and non-pregnant women. Since 2022, she is a DDLS fellow in epidemiology and biology of infection at Uppsala University’s Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Imbim
Female sex hormones and the human microbiome
Estrogen and progesterone have pleitropic effects throughout the body. This includes mucosal surfaces and the diverse microbial communities that inhabit them. Microbiota can enhance or dampen these effects, thereby acting as risk mediating factors for various diseases, most notably gynecologic and periodontal inflammation. The vaginal microbiota has been epidemiologically linked to various outcomes, from STI acquisition to preterm birth. The oral microbiota has also been causally linked to as disparate outcomes as preterm birth and newly onset depression. Here, I will present ongoing work on the interplay between endogenous and exhogenous hormones on the oral, vaginal and gut microbiome, in women with a regular menstrual cycle as well as pregnant women. Additionally, since both sex hormones and the gut microbiome are implicated in mood disorders, I will touch upon the gut-brain axis in relation to pregnancy nausea and perinatal depression.
Host: Mikael Sellin mikael.sellin@imbim.uu.se, UU
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