Distinct Patterns in Human Milk Microbiota and Fatty Acid Profiles Across Specific Geographic Locations

Abstract

Breast feeding results in long term health benefits in the prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases at both individual and population levels. Geographical location directly impacts the composition of breast milk including microbiota and lipids. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of geographical location, i.e., Europe (Spain and Finland), Africa (South Africa), and Asia (China), on breast milk microbiota and lipid composition in samples obtained from healthy mothers after the 1 month of lactation. Altogether, 80 women (20 from each country) participated in the study, with equal number of women who delivered by vaginal or cesarean section from each country. Lipid composition particularly that of polyunsaturated fatty acids differed between the countries, with the highest amount of n-6 PUFA (25.6%) observed in the milk of Chinese women. Milk microbiota composition also differed significantly between the countries (p = 0.002). Among vaginally delivered women, Spanish women had highest amount of Bacteroidetes (mean relative abundance of 3.75) whereas Chinese women had highest amount of Actinobacteria (mean relative abundance 5.7). Women who had had a cesarean section had higher amount of Proteobacteria as observed in the milk of the Spanish and South African women. Interestingly, the Spanish and South African women had significantly higher bacterial genes mapped to lipid, amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism (p < 0.05). Association of the lipid profile with the microbiota revealed that monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were negatively associated with Proteobacteria (r = -0.43, p < 0.05), while Lactobacillus genus was associated with MUFA (r = -0.23, p = 0.04). These findings reveal that the milk microbiota and lipid composition exhibit differences based on geographical locations in addition to the differences observed due to the mode of delivery.

Breast Milk Polyamines and Microbiota Interactions: Impact of Mode of Delivery and Geographical Location

“…As has been recently reported by Kumar et al [20] , human milk composition can be influenced by environmental factors in both nutritional and bacterial composition. In this study, we report that these factors also modulate polyamine concentrations in breast milk and their association to milk microbiota.…”

“…Recently it has been discovered that caesarean section mothers have higher levels of Proteobacteria class in milk [20] and higher levels of P. fragi (unpublished data) than mothers who delivered normally. Polyamine production was reported in the Proteobacteria group with the generation of putrescine, spermidine and spermine, and also included fewer common polyamines, such as homospermidine, with the production of one or several of these polyamines being genera-dependent [31] .…”

“…Breast milk samples were obtained 1 month post-partum from 78 healthy women volunteers practicing exclusive breastfeeding, with a different mode of delivery, and from 4 geographical locations, including China (10 cesarean deliveries, 10 normal deliveries), South Africa (10 cesarean deliveries, 8 normal deliveries), Finland (10 cesarean deliveries, 10 normal deliveries), and Spain (10 cesarean deliveries, 10 normal deliveries), as described by Kumar et al [20] . The study was approved by the Ethics Committees of the respective participating institutions, Spain (Bioethics Committee of CSIC and the Regional Ethics Committee for Biomedical Research), Finland (Ethics Committee, Hospital District of Southwest Finland), China (Medical Research Board of Peking University) and South Africa (University of Cape Town, Human Research Ethics Committee).…”

“…Microbial DNA extraction and sequencing by an Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform has been described in a previous study by Kumar et al [20] . Sequencing data has been submitted to NCBI with SRA accession: SRP082263 and submission ID: SUB1772296.…”

“…The microbiota composition in human milk can be influenced by various factors, such as gestational age, lactation stage, maternal health and mode of delivery [19][20][21] . Even though the variety of polyamines found in bacteria is higher than it is in mammals, the 2 most common and dominant polyamines are putrescine and spermidine [1,22] .…”