Abstract
The intestinal microbiome plays an important role in maintaining health throughout life. The microbiota develops progressively after birth and is influenced by many factors, including the mode of delivery, antibiotics, and diet. Maternal milk is critically important to the development of the neonatal intestinal microbiota. Different bioactive components of milk, such as human milk oligosaccharides, lactoferrin, and secretory immunoglobulins, modify the composition of the neonatal microbiota. In this article, we review the role of each of these maternal milk-derived bioactive factors on the microbiota and how this modulation of intestinal bacteria shapes health, and disease.
Highlights
Mammals feed their infants milk for the period before they are capable of acquiring food on their own
This structure is similar to the composition of the skin microbiome, and human milk is likely the source of the relatively large amounts of these bacteria that inhabit the neonatal intestine in the first month of life [63]
The Nutrients acquisition of xmicrobiomes that are appropriate to the various body sites is an important component of development
Summary
Mammals feed their infants milk for the period before they are capable of acquiring food on their own. Milk is a mechanism by which a mother can protect the mucosal surfaces of their immunologically inexperienced infants from infection. Maternal milk shapes the acquisition and development of the bacteria, archaea, viruses, protists, and fungi, collectively termed the microbiome, that colonize our barrier surfaces. While the initial colonization of the infant gastrointestinal (GI) tract with the microbiome can be volatile, there is a characteristic path for the development of the nascent microbiome after birth that is shaped by components of maternal milk. We will review the nutritional and bioactive components of milk and their potential effects on the developing microbiome of the infant intestine
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