A Pilot Study to Determine the Gut Microbiota of Hong Kong Infants Fed with Breast-milk And/or Infant Formula (P11-101-19)

Abstract

ObjectivesGut microbiome in newborn infants affect their gut health and future development. The major nutrient sources for infants aged 2–4 months are breast-milk or infant formula, hence it is worth investigating whether exclusively breastfed or infant formula-fed does affect the early development of the gut microbiota communities. Metagenomics has been applied to analyse the infant fecal samples in the United State and some European countries, however, similar studies were limited in Asia and especially Hong Kong. MethodsThree groups of infants aged 2–4 months which were exclusively breastfed (BF), exclusively infant formula-fed (IF) or mix-fed with breast-milk and infant formula (MF) were recruited. Genomic DNA from the fecal sample and breast-milk was extracted and subjected to 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing to understand the gut microbiota profile, the difference of microbiota diversity and community abundance in these three feeding groups. The sequencing results were processed using pipelines Mothur and Qiime2. ResultsOverall the breast-milk showed higher alpha-diversity than the fecal samples. The 3 predominant Phyla were Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes within the fecal samples from all feeding patterns while the 3 dominant Phyla were Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria in the breastmilk. Higher abundance of the well-known immune-modulating Genera Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus were found in the fecal samples of BF and MF groups than the IF group whereas IF group harboured highest abundance of Genus Clostridium among 3 fecal groups. A PCoA based on unweighted UniFrac distance showed that the microbiota from the breastmilk clustered and distinctly separated from those of fecal samples. Moreover, the microbiota of MF subjects were close to BF subjects from the PCoA analysis. ConclusionsOur preliminary results suggested that partial feeding with breast-milk could still maintain the major gut community composition as in the BF group. Feeding pattern affect the gut microbiota in Hong Kong infants aged 2–4 month and probiotic genera Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus were found in the breast-milk, and fecal samples of BF and MF groups. Funding SourcesHealth and Medical Research Fund, Food and Health Bureau, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.