beds by the photographer, lies in a baby bed in the maternity ward of a hospital on August 12, 2011 in a city in the east German state of Brandenburg, Germany. According to data released by Eurostat last week Germany, with 8.3 births per 1,000 people, has the lowest birth rate in all of Europe. Eastern Germany, which not only suffers from a low birth rate, also has a declining population due to young people moving away because of high unemployment in the region.
“So far, almost all studies of gut neurotransmitters were conducted in adult animals or human subjects, where a specific gut cell type called enterochromaffin cells produce neurotransmitters,” explained Dr. Zeng. “However, we discovered that this isn’t the case in the newborn gut where most of the serotonin is made by bacteria that are more abundant in the neonatal gut.
“We found that gut bacteria in young mice not only directly produce serotonin but also decrease an enzyme called monoamine oxidase that normally breaks down serotonin, thus keeping gut serotonin levels high,” lead author, Katherine Sanidad, a postdoctoral associate in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, said in a press release.
The researchers emphasized the importance of infants having good bacteria in their gut right after birth. Particularly in developed countries, babies have far less exposure to diverse microbes due to living in cleaner environments than babies born in developing countries. Also, unhealthy diets full of ultra-processed foods could significantly deplete the presence of serotonin-producing bacteria in the neonatal gut.