Abstract
There is a growing consensus that nutritional programming may persist and influence risk for several chronic diseases in adulthood. In the present study, we used urinary metabolic analysis in assessing diet effects on early-life metabolism. Urine samples from healthy three-month-old infants fed human milk (HM; n = 93), cow’s milk-based infant formula [MF; n = 80], or soy protein-based infant formula (SF; n = 76) were analyzed with an untargeted metabolomics approach using GC-TOF MS. PLS-DA and ANOVA analyses were performed using MetaboAnalyst (v4.0). A total of 150 metabolites differed significantly among the feeding groups, including dietary-specific patterns of urinary metabolites of sugars, sugar alcohols, amino acids, and polyphenols. Urinary metabolites may mirror the infant’s overall metabolism and serve as a noninvasive tool to examine the neonatal effects of diet on early-infant metabolism.
Highlights
Human milk (HM) is the sole source of nutrition, growth, and development of breast-fed infants [1]and provides protein and bioactive components that contribute to short- [2,3] and long-term health benefits [4,5,6]
Infant feeding distinguished the diversity of urinary metabolites in human milk versus cow and soy-based infant formulas
The main divergence in the metabolic profiling was observed in human milk (HM) relative to the formula diet groups, while differences in urinary metabolites were observed between the formula groups
Summary
Human milk (HM) is the sole source of nutrition, growth, and development of breast-fed infants [1]and provides protein and bioactive components that contribute to short- [2,3] and long-term health benefits [4,5,6]. Human milk (HM) is the sole source of nutrition, growth, and development of breast-fed infants [1]. The protein and amino acid content of infant formulas are higher than those present in human milk to achieve similar serum concentrations of the essential amino acids of breastfed infants [11]. Nutritive and non-nutritive components of HM and infant formula are known factors that shape infant’s growth and body composition [12], and metabolism [13,14]. Infant formula was found to alter fecal microbiota and metabolome profile in infants relative to human milk feeding through the first year of life [15] and breastfeeding enhanced the number of microbial genes related to glutamate and tryptophan metabolism in infants aged three, six, and 12 months [15]. The mechanisms involved in health outcomes during neonatal feeding remain to be fully characterized
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