Abstract
Gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota composition differs between breastfed and formula-fed infants. Today’s infant formulas are often fortified with prebiotics to better mimic properties of human milk with respect to its effect on GI microbiota composition and function. We used Illumina HiSeq sequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments to investigate the composition of faecal microbiota in 2–12 week old infants receiving either breastmilk, infant formulas fortified with prebiotics, or mixed feeding. We compared these results with results from infants fed traditional formulas used in the Netherlands in 2002–2003, which contained no added prebiotics. We showed that today’s formulas supplemented with either scGOS (0.24–0.50 g/100 ml) or scGOS and lcFOS (at a 9:1 ratio; total 0.6 g/100 ml) had a strong bifidogenic effect as compared to traditional formulas, and they also resulted in altered patterns of microbial colonisation within the developing infant gastrointestinal tract. We identified three microbial states (or developmental stages) in the first 12 weeks of life, with a gradual transition pattern towards a bifidobacteria dominated state. In infants receiving only fortified formulas, this transition towards the bifidobacteria dominated state was accelerated, whereas in infants receiving mixed feeding the transition was delayed, as compared to exclusively breastfed infants.
Highlights
Gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota composition differs between breastfed and formula-fed infants
In the BINGO cohort faecal samples were collected between years 2015–2016 from infants at two, six and 12 weeks of age, and most commercial infant formulas used in the BINGO cohort contained prebiotics
The current study examined faecal microbiota composition in healthy infants sampled at two, six and 12 weeks of age from the BINGO study cohort and infants sampled at approximately one month of age from the KOALA study cohort
Summary
Gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota composition differs between breastfed and formula-fed infants. We used Illumina HiSeq sequencing of PCRamplified 16S rRNA gene fragments to investigate the composition of faecal microbiota in 2–12 week old infants receiving either breastmilk, infant formulas fortified with prebiotics, or mixed feeding We compared these results with results from infants fed traditional formulas used in the Netherlands in 2002–2003, which contained no added prebiotics. Various studies since confirmed that the GI microbiota of breastfed infants is dominated by bifidobacteria, as compared to formula fed infants, a fact which has been most often attributed to the presence of HMOs in the human milk, and their lack in infant formulas[15,16] Taking into account both the wide use of infant formulas and the growing evidence for the importance of GI microbiota for health throughout life, it became clear that the functional prebiotic properties of infant formulas needed to be addressed. We show that the new prebiotic supplemented formulas have a bifidogenic effect on infant GI microbiota, they result in altered dynamics of bacterial colonisation during the first 12 weeks of life as compared to breastfed infants
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