Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
GenProbio srl, Parma, Italy.
Microbiol Spectr. 2023 Jun 15;11(3):e0066523. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.00665-23. Epub 2023 May 16.
Multiple millennia of human evolution have shaped the chemical composition of breast milk toward an optimal human body fluid for nutrition and protection and for shaping the early gut microbiota of newborns. This biological fluid is composed of water, lipids, simple and complex carbohydrates, proteins, immunoglobulins, and hormones. Potential interactions between hormones present in mother's milk and the microbial community of the newborn are a very fascinating yet unexplored topic. In this context, insulin, in addition to being one of the most prevalent hormones in breast milk, is also involved in a metabolic disease that affects many pregnant women, i.e., gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Analysis of 3,620 publicly available metagenomic data sets revealed that the bifidobacterial community varies in relation to the different concentrations of this hormone in breast milk of healthy and diabetic mothers. Starting from this assumption, in this study, we explored possible molecular interactions between this hormone and bifidobacterial strains that represent bifidobacterial species commonly occurring in the infant gut using 'omics' approaches. Our findings revealed that insulin modulates the bifidobacterial community by apparently improving the persistence of the Bifidobacterium bifidum taxon in the infant gut environment compared to other typical infant-associated bifidobacterial species. Breast milk is a key factor in modulating the infant's intestinal microbiota composition. Even though the interaction between human milk sugars and bifidobacteria has been extensively studied, there are other bioactive compounds in human milk that may influence the gut microbiota, such as hormones. In this article, the molecular interaction of the human milk hormone insulin and the bifidobacterial communities colonizing the human gut in the early stages of life has been explored. This molecular cross talk was assessed using an gut microbiota model and then analyzed by various omics approaches, allowing the identification of genes associated with bacterial cell adaptation/colonization in the human intestine. Our findings provide insights into the manner by which assembly of the early gut microbiota may be regulated by host factors such as hormones carried by human milk.
人类进化历经了多个千年,使得母乳的化学成分朝着最有利于人体营养和保护的方向发展,并塑造了新生儿早期肠道微生物群。这种生物液体由水、脂肪、简单和复杂碳水化合物、蛋白质、免疫球蛋白和激素组成。母乳中存在的激素与新生儿微生物群落之间的潜在相互作用是一个非常有趣但尚未探索的话题。在这种情况下,胰岛素除了是母乳中最常见的激素之一外,还与一种影响许多孕妇的代谢疾病(即妊娠糖尿病)有关。对 3620 个公开可用的宏基因组数据集的分析表明,双歧杆菌群落的变化与健康和糖尿病母亲母乳中这种激素的不同浓度有关。基于这一假设,在这项研究中,我们使用“组学”方法探索了这种激素与双歧杆菌菌株之间可能存在的分子相互作用,这些双歧杆菌菌株代表了在婴儿肠道中常见的双歧杆菌物种。我们的研究结果表明,胰岛素通过明显改善双歧杆菌属在婴儿肠道环境中的持久性来调节双歧杆菌群落,与其他常见的婴儿相关双歧杆菌物种相比。母乳是调节婴儿肠道微生物群落组成的关键因素。尽管人类乳糖与双歧杆菌之间的相互作用已经得到了广泛的研究,但母乳中还有其他可能影响肠道微生物群的生物活性化合物,如激素。在本文中,我们探索了人类乳激素胰岛素与定植在生命早期人类肠道中的双歧杆菌群落之间的分子相互作用。这种分子串扰是使用肠道微生物群模型进行评估的,然后通过各种组学方法进行分析,从而鉴定与细菌细胞在人类肠道中适应/定植相关的基因。我们的研究结果提供了一些见解,说明早期肠道微生物群的组装方式可能如何受到宿主因素(如母乳携带的激素)的调节。