Dotz Viktoria, Adam Rüdiger, Lochnit Günter, Schroten Horst, Kunz Clemens
Institute of Nutritional Science, University of Giessen, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Pediatric Gastroenterology, Department of Pediatrics, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68167 Mannheim, Germany.
Glycobiology. 2016 Dec;26(12):1308-1316. doi: 10.1093/glycob/cww087. Epub 2016 Sep 9.
Beneficial effects have been proposed for human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), as deduced from in vitro and animal studies. To date, in vivo evidence of the link between certain oligosaccharide structures in milk and their consumption by infant gut microbiota is still missing, although likely. Whereas many studies have described HMO patterns in human milk from larger cohorts, data on the excretion of HMO and possible metabolites produced in the infant gut are still very limited. From smaller-scale studies, an age-dependency according to infant gut maturation and microbiota adaptation has previously been hypothesized. To further investigate this, we profiled neutral fecal oligosaccharides from term-born infants who were exclusively breastfed, formula-fed or mixed-fed at the age of 2 months, and from a follow-up of a subgroup at 7 months of age (INFABIO study). Data on maternal antibiotic exposure was also included. Automated matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry analyses revealed the presence of HMO and metabolites in the feces of most, but not all breastfed infants at 2 months, with highly varying patterns that appeared not to differ with maternal antibiotics exposure. Formula-fed infants at 2 months and most of the breastfed infants at 7 months did not excrete HMO-like structures in their feces, the latter corresponding to the hypothesis of age-dependency. Together with our previous results that were partly contradictory to what has been proposed by others, here, we suggest alternative explanations for the described association of oligosaccharide excretion with age and feeding type in infants below 7 months of age.
从体外和动物研究推断，人乳寡糖（HMO）具有有益作用。尽管有可能，但迄今为止，母乳中某些寡糖结构与婴儿肠道微生物群对其消耗之间联系的体内证据仍然缺失。虽然许多研究描述了来自更大队列的母乳中的HMO模式，但关于HMO排泄以及婴儿肠道中产生的可能代谢物的数据仍然非常有限。从小规模研究中，先前曾假设存在根据婴儿肠道成熟和微生物群适应的年龄依赖性。为了进一步研究这一点，我们分析了足月出生的婴儿在2个月大时纯母乳喂养、配方奶喂养或混合喂养，以及7个月大时一个亚组随访（INFABIO研究）的中性粪便寡糖。还纳入了母亲抗生素暴露的数据。自动基质辅助激光解吸/电离飞行时间质谱分析显示，大多数但并非所有2个月大的母乳喂养婴儿的粪便中存在HMO和代谢物，其模式差异很大，似乎与母亲抗生素暴露无关。2个月大的配方奶喂养婴儿和7个月大的大多数母乳喂养婴儿的粪便中未排出HMO样结构，后者符合年龄依赖性的假设。结合我们之前部分与其他人提出的观点相矛盾的结果，在此，我们对7个月以下婴儿中所描述的寡糖排泄与年龄和喂养类型之间的关联提出了其他解释。
