Interactions between human milk oligosaccharides, microbiota and immune factors in milk of women with and without mastitis

Irma Castro,Lars Bode,Lorena Ruiz,Leónides Fernández,Janneiry García,Rebeca Arroyo,Juan M Rodríguez,Cristina García-Carral,Annalee Furst,Sadaf Khwajazada

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-05250-7

Irma Castro, Lars Bode + Show 8 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05250-7

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Abstract

Lactational mastitis is an excellent target to study possible interactions between HMOs, immune factors and milk microbiota due to the infectious and inflammatory nature of this condition. In this work, microbiological, immunological and HMO profiles of milk samples from women with (MW) or without (HW) mastitis were compared. Secretor status in women (based on HMO profile) was not associated to mastitis. DFLNH, LNFP II and LSTb concentrations in milk were higher in samples from HW than from MW among Secretor women. Milk from HW was characterized by a low bacterial load (dominated by Staphylococcus epidermidis and streptococci), high prevalence of IL10 and IL13, and low sialylated HMO concentration. In contrast, high levels of staphylococci, streptococci, IFNγ and IL12 characterized milk from MW. A comparison between subacute (SAM) and acute (AM) mastitis cases revealed differences related to the etiological agent (S. epidermidis in SAM; Staphylococcus aureus in AM), milk immunological profile (high content of IL10 and IL13 in SAM and IL2 in AM) and milk HMOs profile (high content of 3FL in SAM and of LNT, LNnT, and LSTc in AM). These results suggest that microbiological, immunological and HMOs profiles of milk are related to mammary health of women.

Highlights

Lactational mastitis is an excellent target to study possible interactions between human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), immune factors and milk microbiota due to the infectious and inflammatory nature of this condition
In a distinct group of women classified as Secretor (n = 89, 81%), 2′-fucosyllactose (2′FL) was the predominant HMO with a median [interquartile range (IQR)] value of 6444.10 [4820.80–7929.50] nmol/mL, in non-Secretor women (n = 21, 19%), the highest concentrations corresponded to 3-fucosyllactose (3FL) and lacto-N-fucopentaose II (LNFP II)
Samples from Secretor MW had about double the concentration of the sialylated, Type 2 (LNnT + LNFP III + LSTc) and α-2,6 (LSTc + 6′SL) HMOs when compared with samples from Secretor samples from healthy women (HW) participants (Supplementary Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Lactational mastitis is an excellent target to study possible interactions between HMOs, immune factors and milk microbiota due to the infectious and inflammatory nature of this condition. A comparison between subacute (SAM) and acute (AM) mastitis cases revealed differences related to the etiological agent (S. epidermidis in SAM; Staphylococcus aureus in AM), milk immunological profile (high content of IL10 and IL13 in SAM and IL2 in AM) and milk HMOs profile (high content of 3FL in SAM and of LNT, LNnT, and LSTc in AM) These results suggest that microbiological, immunological and HMOs profiles of milk are related to mammary health of women. Because of the inflammatory and infectious nature of the condition, mastitis constitutes an excellent target to study potential interactions among HMOs, soluble immune factors and the milk microbiota In this context, the objectives of this work were, first, to describe the differences in microbiological, immunological and HMO profiles between milk samples from healthy women and from women with mastitis, Scientific Reports | (2022) 12:1367. Second, to explore possible associations between microbiota, immune compounds and HMO profile in milk samples from cases of acute and subacute mastitis

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