AUTHOR=Mainardi Fabio , Binia Aristea , Rajhans Purva , Austin Sean , Deoni Sean , Schneider Nora 

TITLE=Human milk oligosaccharide composition and associations with growth: results from an observational study in the US

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1239349

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2023.1239349

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>Breast milk is the recommended source of nutrients for newborns and infants. Human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) are the third most abundant solid component in human milk and their composition varies during lactation.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Objectives</title><p>Our objective was to investigate longitudinal and cross-sectional changes in HMO composition and whether these changes were associated with infant growth up to 24 months of age. Associations with maternal characteristics were also investigated.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Methods</title><p>24 HMOs were quantified in samples taken at 2 weeks (<italic>n</italic> = 107), 6 weeks (<italic>n</italic> = 97) and 3 months (<italic>n</italic> = 76), using high performance liquid chromatography. Body length, weight, and head circumference were measured at 8 timepoints, until 24 months. Clusters of breast milk samples, reflecting different HMO profiles, were found through a data-driven approach. Longitudinal associations were investigated using functional principal component analysis (FPCA) and used to characterize patterns in the growth trajectories.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Results</title><p>Four clusters of samples with similar HMO composition were derived. Two patterns of growth were identified for length, body weight and head circumference via the FPCA approach, explaining more than 90% of the variance. The first pattern measured general growth while the second corresponded to an initial reduced velocity followed by an increased velocity (“higher velocity”). Higher velocity for weight and height was significantly associated with negative Lewis status. Concentrations of 3’GL, 3FL, 6’GL, DSNLT, LNFP-II, LNFP-III, LNT, LSTb were negatively associated with higher velocity for length.</p></sec><sec id="sec5"><title>Conclusion</title><p>We introduced novel statistical approaches to establish longitudinal associations between HMOs evolution and growth. Based on our approach we propose that HMOs may act synergistically on children growth. A possible causal relationship should be further tested in pre-clinical and clinical setting.</p></sec>