Patterns of Human Milk Oligosaccharides in Mature Milk Are Associated with Certain Gut Microbiota in Infants.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are complexes that play a crucial role in shaping the early-life gut microbiota. This study intends to explore whether HMO patterns are associated with the gut microbiota of infants. We included 96 Chinese breastfeeding mother-infant dyads. Breast milk and infant faecal samples were collected and tested. With milk 2'-fucosyllactose, difucosyllactose, and lacto--fucopentaose-I as biomarkers, we divided the mothers into secretor and non-secretor groups. HMO patterns were extracted using principal component analysis. The majority (70.7%) of mothers were categorised as secretor and five different HMO patterns were identified. After adjustment, the infants of secretor mothers exhibited a lower relative abundance of (β = -0.245, 95%CI: -0.465~-0.025). An HMO pattern characterised by high levels of 3-fucosyllactose, lacto--fucopentaose-III, and lacto--neodifucohexaose-II was positively associated with the relative abundance of ( = 0.014), while the pattern characterised by lacto--neotetraose, 6'-sialyllactose, and sialyllacto--tetraose-b was negatively associated with ( = 0.027). The pattern characterised by high levels of monofucosyl-lacto--hexaose-III and monofucosyl-lacto--neohexaose was positively associated with ( = 0.025) and ( < 0.001), respectively. This study suggests that HMO patterns from mature breast milk were associated with certain gut microbiota of breastfed infants.