AUTHOR=Pisa Edoardo , Traversa Alice , Caputo Viviana , Ottomana Angela Maria , Hauser Jonas , Macrì Simone TITLE=Long-term consequences of reduced availability and compensatory supplementation of sialylated HMOs on cognitive capabilities JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience VOLUME=17 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2023.1091890 DOI=10.3389/fncel.2023.1091890 ISSN=1662-5102 ABSTRACT=
Breast milk (BM) is the optimal source of nutrition for mammals’ early life. It exerts multiple benefits, including the development of cognitive capabilities and protection against several diseases like obesity and infection of the respiratory tract. However, which components of BM are involved in individual development has remained elusive. Sialylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) may constitute a valid candidate, whereby they represent the principal source of sialic acid and act as building blocks for brain development. We hypothesize that the reduced availability of two HMOs, sialyl(alpha2,6)lactose (6′SL) and sialyl(alpha2,3)lactose (3′SL), may impair attention, cognitive flexibility, and memory in a preclinical model and that the exogenous supplementation of these compounds may contrast the observed deficits. We evaluated cognitive capabilities in a preclinical model exposed to maternal milk containing reduced concentrations of 6′SL and 3′SL during lactation. To modulate their concentrations, we utilized a preclinical model characterized by the absence of genes that synthesize 3′SL and 6′SL (B6.129-