Dynamics of human milk oligosaccharides in early lactation and relation with growth and appetitive traits of Filipino breastfed infants

Abstract

Human milk oligosaccharides play a key role in the maturation of the infant gut microbiome and immune system and are hypothesized to affect growth. This study examined the temporal changes of 24 HMOs and their associations to infant growth and appetitive traits in an exploratory, prospective, observational, study of 41 Filipino mother-infant dyads. Exclusively breastfed, healthy, term infants were enrolled at 21–26 days of age (≈ 0.75 mo) and followed for 6 months. Infant growth measures and appetitive traits were collected at visit 1 (V1) (≈ 0.75 mo), V2 (≈ 1.5 mo), V3 (2.5 mo), V4 (2.75 mo), V5 (4 mo), and V6 (6 mo), while HMOs were measured at V1, V2, V3 and V5. Overall exposure to each HMO was summarized as area under the curve from baseline to 4 months of age and examined in association with each measure of growth at 6 months using linear regression adjusted for maternal age at birth, infant sex, birth weight, and mode of delivery. We saw modest associations between several HMOs and infant growth parameters. Our results suggest that specific HMOs, partly as proxy for milk groups (defined by Secretor and Lewis status), may be associated with head circumference and length, increasing their relevance especially in populations at the lower end of the WHO growth curve. We did not identify the same HMOs associated with infant appetitive traits, indicating that at least in our cohort, changes in appetite were not driving the observed associations between HMOs and growth.Clinical trial registration: NCT03387124.

The role of maternal secretor status and human milk oligosaccharides on early childhood development: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The second metric, height gain, was reported in 12/19 studies as either weight for length z score, length for age z score, or height for age z score. The following HMOs had a positive correlation with height gain: 2’FL [30,31,47,48], 3FL [43], 3’SL [39,43], LNnT [39], LST-a [49,51], DFLNH [41,43,51], and DFLNT [43] while a negative correlation was linked with: 3FL [52], 3’SL [46], 6’SL [49], LNnT [30,39,43,46], LNT [31,39], LNFP I [39,47], LNFP II [32], LST b [30,31,49], and FLNH [39].…”

“…Table 1 summarizes the sociodemographic and HMO data from the 27 studies that were included in this review. The selected studies were conducted in 21 countries: Australia [31,43]; Bangladesh [53]; Brazil [36,50]; China [32,41]; Denmark [54]; Finland [30]; France [48]; Gambia [18]; Germany [39]; Kenya [42]; Malawi [47,51]; Netherlands [44]; Philippines [52]; Singapore [33]; Spain [40]; Sweden [49]; and USA [17,34,35,37,38,45]. In addition, there was one European Union study involving milk samples collected from France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden [46].…”

Human Milk Microbiome and Microbiome-Related Products: Potential Modulators of Infant Growth

“…Multiple studies, although inconsistent, have identified various associations between individual HMOs and/or HMO diversity and infant growth [ 77 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 ]. Most of the previous studies have measured HMOs using high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) in conjunction with fluorescent derivatisation [ 59 , 77 , 78 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 90 , 91 ], and two have used nano-LC-chip/time-of-flight (TOF)-MS [ 83 , 89 ].…”

“…Multiple studies, although inconsistent, have identified various associations between individual HMOs and/or HMO diversity and infant growth [ 77 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 ]. Most of the previous studies have measured HMOs using high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) in conjunction with fluorescent derivatisation [ 59 , 77 , 78 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 90 , 91 ], and two have used nano-LC-chip/time-of-flight (TOF)-MS [ 83 , 89 ]. However, differences in study populations and design, including sample time point(s) and reporting styles for infant growth data, make it difficult to identify any consensus between studies, with contradictory associations reported for some HMOs ( Table 1 ).…”

Screening competition and cross-feeding interactions during utilization of human milk oligosaccharides by gut microbes

“…Human milk contains infant's nutrients and bioactive components that support appropriate growth, digestibility, and tolerance [7,8] . Breastfeeding has a distinctive protective role since breastfed infants have a lower incidence of diarrhea, allergies, and inflammatory diseases, contributing additional benefits to immune system development [9][10][11] . Breast milk contains high concentrations of free human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs).…”