Xi Menglu, Yan Yalu, Duan Sufang, Li Ting, Szeto Ignatius Man-Yau, Zhao Ai
Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Ltd., Yili Maternal and Infant Nutrition Institute (YMINI), Beijing, China.
Front Microbiol. 2024 Feb 19;15:1356462. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1356462. eCollection 2024.
The short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) contained in breast milk play a key role in infant growth, affecting metabolism and enhancing intestinal immunity by regulating inflammation.
In order to examine the associations between the microbiota and SCFA levels in breast milk, and explore the roles of SCFAs in regulating the infant gut microbiota, we enrolled 50 paired mothers and infants and collected both breast milk and infant fecal samples. Breast milk SCFA contents were determined by UPLC-MS, and whole genome shotgun sequencing was applied to determine the microbial composition of breast milk and infant feces. The SCFA levels in breast milk were grouped into tertiles as high, medium, or low, and the differences of intestinal microbiota and KEGG pathways were compared among groups.
The results demonstrated that breast milk butyric acid (C4) is significantly associated with Clostridium leptum richness in breastmilk. Additionally, the specific may have an interactive symbiosis with the main species of C4-producing bacteria in human milk. Women with a low breast milk C4 tertile are associated with a high abundance of and in their infants' feces. KEGG pathway analysis further showed that the content of C4 in breast milk is significantly correlated with the infants' metabolic pathways of lysine and arginine biosynthesis.
This study suggests that interactive symbiosis of the microbiota exists in breast milk. Certain breast milk microbes could be beneficial by producing C4 and further influence the abundance of certain gut microbes in infants, playing an important role in early immune and metabolic development.
母乳中含有的短链脂肪酸（SCFAs）在婴儿生长中起关键作用，通过调节炎症影响新陈代谢并增强肠道免疫力。
为了研究母乳中微生物群与SCFA水平之间的关联，并探讨SCFAs在调节婴儿肠道微生物群中的作用，我们招募了50对母婴，并收集了母乳和婴儿粪便样本。通过超高效液相色谱-质谱联用仪（UPLC-MS）测定母乳中SCFA含量，并应用全基因组鸟枪法测序来确定母乳和婴儿粪便中的微生物组成。将母乳中SCFA水平分为高、中、低三个三分位数组，比较各组之间肠道微生物群和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）通路的差异。
结果表明，母乳中的丁酸（C4）与母乳中纤细梭菌的丰度显著相关。此外，特定的[此处原文缺失相关内容]可能与人乳中产生C4的主要细菌物种存在交互共生关系。母乳C4三分位数低的女性，其婴儿粪便中的[此处原文缺失相关内容]和[此处原文缺失相关内容]丰度较高。KEGG通路分析进一步表明，母乳中C4的含量与婴儿赖氨酸和精氨酸生物合成的代谢通路显著相关。
本研究表明母乳中存在微生物群的交互共生关系。某些母乳微生物可能通过产生C4而有益，并进一步影响婴儿某些肠道微生物的丰度，在早期免疫和代谢发育中发挥重要作用。
