Comparison of the bifidogenic activity of human and bovine milk N-glycome

Abstract

The ability of B. longum subsp. infantis ATCC15697 in utilizing milk N-glycans to shape an ideal gut microbiota in infants has not been extensively studied. Here we compared N-glycan structures from human and bovine milk using UHPLC and MALDI-TOF-MS/MS. The structural differences between the two were apparent. When being tested as bifidus growth promoting factors, milk N-glycans from both human and bovine showed bifidogenic activity, with a stronger effect from the former. Sequential comparison of glycoprofiles revealed an apparent difference in the bifidobacterial consumption of N-glycans from human and bovine milk, and a general preference for smaller structures. In summary, this work indicates that the consumption of the milk N-glycans by B. infantis ATCC15697 is depending on the glycan composition, and regulating the N-glycome composition of bovine milk through adding exogenous N-glycans favored by B. infantis ATCC15697 might provide improved effect on regulating the microbial composition of the infant gut.