Foods for Health Institute and Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
Annu Rev Food Sci Technol. 2011;2:331-51. doi: 10.1146/annurev-food-022510-133743.
In addition to a nutritive role, human milk also guides the development of a protective intestinal microbiota in the infant. Human milk possesses an overabundance of complex oligosaccharides that are indigestible by the infant yet are consumed by microbial populations in the developing intestine. These oligosaccharides are believed to facilitate enrichment of a healthy infant gastrointestinal microbiota, often associated with bifidobacteria. Advances in glycomics have enabled precise determination of milk glycan structures as well as identification of the specific glycans consumed by various gut microbes. Furthermore, genomic analysis of bifidobacteria from infants has revealed specific genetic loci related to milk oligosaccharide import and processing, suggesting coevolution between the human host, milk glycans, and the microbes they enrich. This review discusses the current understanding of how human milk oligosaccharides interact with the infant microbiota and examines the opportunities for translating this knowledge to improve the functionality of infant formulas.
除了营养作用外，人乳还指导婴儿保护性肠道微生物群的发育。人乳含有大量复杂的低聚糖，婴儿无法消化，但可被发育中的肠道中的微生物群消耗。这些低聚糖被认为有助于丰富健康婴儿的胃肠道微生物群，通常与双歧杆菌有关。糖组学的进步使人们能够精确地确定乳聚糖结构，并确定各种肠道微生物消耗的特定聚糖。此外，对婴儿双歧杆菌的基因组分析揭示了与乳寡糖摄取和加工相关的特定遗传基因座，这表明人类宿主、乳聚糖和丰富它们的微生物之间存在共同进化。本文讨论了目前对人乳低聚糖与人乳微生物群相互作用的理解，并研究了将这一知识转化为提高婴儿配方奶粉功能的机会。
