Abstract
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are multifunctional carbohydrates naturally present in human milk that act as prebiotics, prevent pathogen binding and infections, modulate the immune system and may support brain development in infants. HMOs composition is very individualized and differences in HMOs concentrations may affect the infant’s health. HMOs variability can be partially explained by the activity of Secretor (Se) and Lewis (Le) genes in the mother, but non-genetic maternal factors may also be involved. In this cross-sectional, observational study, 78 single human milk samples ranging from 17 to 76 days postpartum (median: 32 days, IQR: 25–46 days) were collected from breastfeeding Brazilian women, analyzed for 16 representative HMOs by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and associations between maternal and infant factors with HMOs concentrations were investigated. HMOs concentrations presented a high variability even in women with the same SeLe phenotype and associations with maternal allergic disease, time postpartum and with infant’s weight, weight gain and sex. Overall, we present unprecedented data on HMOs concentrations from breastfeeding Brazilian women and novel associations of maternal allergic disease and infant’s sex with HMOs concentrations. Differences in HMOs composition attributed to maternal SeLe phenotype do not impact infant growth, but higher concentrations of specific HMOs may protect against excessive weight gain.
Highlights
Breastfeeding is the natural and best feeding type for infants, providing nutrition but improving the general health of the mother-infant dyad [1]
Knowing the exact amount of the most representative Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) is important to access the daily intake of HMOs by the infants and the biological effects of these molecules, since some HMOs may act in a dose-dependent manner [31,32,34,48,49]
We presented absolute concentrations of 16 representative HMOs measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) from 78 full-term, mature human milk samples classified according to the SeLe phenotype and investigated associations between maternal and infant characteristics and HMOs composition/concentrations
Summary
Breastfeeding is the natural and best feeding type for infants, providing nutrition but improving the general health of the mother-infant dyad [1]. Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are a complex group of free glycans synthesized by the lactating mammary gland composing the third major solid fraction of human milk, after lactose and lipids [3,4]. HMOs are composed of the monosaccharides glucose (Glc), galactose (Gal), N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), fucose (Fuc) and N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac). Most HMOs contain lactose in the reducing end, which can be elongated by the addition of GlcNAc and Gal to form type 1 (Galβ1-3GlcNAc) or type 2 (Galβ1-4GlcNAc) chains in β1-3 or β1-6 linkages, producing core structures. Fuc and Neu5Ac can be attached to the HMO core or directly to the lactose reducing end [18]. Neutral core, containing Glc, Gal and GlcNAc; 2. Neutral fucosylated, containing one or more Fuc units; and 3. According to the monosaccharides present in the structure, HMOs can be classified into three main groups: 1. neutral core, containing Glc, Gal and GlcNAc; 2. neutral fucosylated, containing one or more Fuc units; and 3. acidic, containing one or more Neu5Ac units
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