Pregnant Women With and Without Crohns Disease to Explore the Role of Plastics and Toxins in Intestinal Inflammation

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a chronic, progressive inflammatory disease of the intestinal tract. The etiology of IBD is not well understood, but believed to result from a complex relationship between genetics, environment, and gut microbiome alterations, resulting in a self-perpetuating, abnormal mucosal immune response. The incidence of IBD is rising in developing and recently developed countries, highlighting the importance of environmental exposures in determining disease risk. Microplastics, defined as plastic particles <5 mm in size, are ubiquitous pollutants with unclear implications towards human health. Emerging studies indicate substantial disruption of intestinal immune function and a proinflammatory milieu due to microplastics. Therefore, identifying, and characterizing microplastics in stool samples of individuals with CD alongside alterations in microbiome and calprotectin, which are events that occur prior to CD onset, is the initial step in exploring the impact of microplastics on IBD. Moreover, CD affects women during their reproductive years and 25% become pregnant after diagnosis. Given that maternal IBD diagnosis is one of the major risks of future IBD in offspring, it is critical to better understand if babies born to mothers with IBD have higher content of microplastics or other toxins in the stools and whether these levels correlate with those of their mothers during pregnancy.

Inclusion criteria

• The ability to sign and date an informed consent form
• Be pregnant, or wishing to become pregnant in the near future and enroll the infant that the individual is pregnant with
• Aged 18 or older
• English-speaking (this observational study uses non-validated questionnaires that are only available in English)
• Of any ethnicity
• Be a spouse, related household member (sibling, parent, etc.) or a child of an enrolled pregnant person

Exclusion criteria

• Individuals who are unable to give informed consent
• Be diagnosed with a pregnancy complication, such as intrauterine fetal demise/stillbirth, preeclampsia, hyperemesis gravidarum, or have an active infection, including chorioamnionitis or sepsis.