Is a breast milk fatty acid linked to microbes in infants’ guts?

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The authors state that short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in breast milk play a key role in infant growth, affecting metabolism and enhancing intestinal immunity by regulating inflammation.

To examine associations between breast milk microbiota and SCFA levels and explore SCFAs’ roles in regulating infant gut microbiota, researchers enrolled 50 mother-infant pairs and collected breast milk and infant fecal samples. They measured breast milk SCFAs using UPLC-MS and used whole genome shotgun sequencing to determine microbial composition in both types of sample. Breast milk SCFA levels were divided into high, medium and low tertiles, and intestinal microbiota and KEGG pathways were compared across the groups.

Breast milk butyric acid (C4) was significantly associated with Clostridium leptum richness in breast milk. The authors also suggest that specific Bifidobacterium may have an interactive symbiosis with the main C4-producing bacterial species in human milk. Mothers in the low breast milk C4 tertile had infants with a high abundance of Salmonella and Salmonella enterica in their feces. KEGG pathway analysis showed that breast milk C4 content was significantly correlated with infants’ lysine and arginine biosynthesis pathways.

The study suggests that interactive symbiosis exists among breast milk microbes. The authors propose that certain breast milk microbes could be beneficial by producing C4 and could further influence the abundance of certain infant gut microbes, playing an important role in early immune and metabolic development.