INDIA, Jan. 18 -- In a first time finding, researchers discover that the lungs and placentas of foetuses in the womb as young as 11 weeks after conception already show a bacterial microbiome signature, which suggests that bacteria may colonise the lungs well before birth.The finding deepens the mystery of how the microbes or microbial products reach those organs before birth and what role they play in normal lung and immune system development. The study was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.A team led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher Charitharth Vivek Lal, MD, found that a human fetal microbiome DNA signature is present in the lungs as early as the first trimester.This foetal lu...