bifidobacteria microbiota in breast milk and the infant gut Solis, G. et al Background There is increasing evidence that introduction of intestinal microbes have an impact on health and predispositions to disease later in life Early colonization begins with anaerobes such as enterobacteria, lactobacilli, and Bifidobacterium Breast milk is known for promoting good health in infants and recently the presence of lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria in milk has been considered as a possible link Breast-fed and formula-fed infants microbiota differ greatly, especially in the number and species composition of bifidobacteria The genus Bifidobacterium has a predominant role in healthy infant guts Not much is known about the relationship between breast milk and the establishment of lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria in infant gut colonization Is there a relationship between the bacteria found in breast milk and the bacteria found in the infant gut?
Hypothesis: Breast milk contains lactobacilli
and bifidobacteria that help establish the initial colonization of the infant gut. Methods 20 mother-infant pairs were selected from a hospital in Gijon, Spain The infants were vaginally delivered to full-term and breast fed. 11 males and 9 females. Breast milk and infant fecal samples were collected at 1,10, 30, and 90 days of age None of the mothers or babies were given antibiotics during the sampling period, but five mothers were given a single course of ampicillin pre-partum Samples were serially diluted to determine concentrations of LAB and bifidobacteria Species identification from the different colonies was done by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene Bacterial counts increased from day 1 to day 10 in the infant feces samples. Bacterial counts decreased in the breast milk samples throughout the study. There was no statistically significant difference in the infant feces bacteria count between the mothers that took antibiotics On days 10, 30, and 90 bifidobacteria were the most frequently found microorganisms in fecal samples
Bifidobacteria made up to 42-59% of isolates, followed
by Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, and Enterococcus as the next most common bacteria in the fecal samples The main bifidobacteria found were B. longum, B. breve, B. bifidum, and B. pseudocatenulatum Streptococcus salivarius, a lactic acid bacterium, made up 36-65% of the isolates in the breast milk samples throughout the study A small amount of B. breve and B. longum were isolated from breast milk samples Summary The establishment of gut microbiota has an impact on health in early and later stages of life Breast-fed infants tend to have similar gut microbe compositions consisting of mostly bifidobacteria Bifidobacteria are seen in high amounts in infant fecal samples while lactic acid bacteria are more common in breast milk samples Conclusion The relationship between breast feeding and establishment of infant gut microbiota is still unclear Future studies can examine how other components of milk may affect the microbiota of infants Learning more about milk and the microbiome may allow researchers and manufactures to develop higher quality infant formulas