Association Between Breastmilk Microbiota and Food Allergy in Infants

Study information

Needs review

study design

time series / longitudinal observational

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

35096637

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.3389/fcimb.2021.770913

URI

Authors

Wang S, Wei Y, Liu L, Li Z

Journal

Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology

Year

2021

Keywords:

breastfeeding, breastmilk microbiome, butyrate, food allergies, infant

Regulating the composition of human breastmilk has the potential to prevent allergic diseases early in life. The composition of breastmilk is complex, comprising varying levels of oligosaccharides, immunoactive molecules, vitamins, metabolites, and microbes. Although several studies have examined the relationship between different components of breastmilk and infant food allergies, few have investigated the relationship between microorganisms in breastmilk and infant food allergy. In the present study, we selected 135 healthy pregnant women and their full-term newborns from a cohort of 202 mother-infant pairs. Among them, 69 infants were exclusively breastfed until 6 mo after birth. At follow-up, 11 of the 69 infants developed a food allergy in infancy while 22 showed no signs of allergy. Thirty-three breastmilk samples were collected within 1 mo after delivery, and 123 infant fecal samples were collected at five time points following their birth. These samples were analyzed using microbial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The abundance and evenness of the milk microbiota and the number of differential bacteria were higher in the breastmilk samples from the non-allergy group than in those from the food allergy group. The non-allergy group showed relatively high abundance of Bifidobacterium, Akkermansia, Clostridium IV, Clostridium XIVa, Veillonella, and butyrate-producing bacteria such as Fusobacterium, Lachnospiraceae incertae sedis, Roseburia, and Ruminococcus. In contrast, the abundance of Proteobacteria, Acinetobacter, and Pseudomonas in breastmilk was higher in the food allergy group. A comparison of the changes in dominant differential breastmilk microbiota in the intestinal flora of the two groups of infants over time revealed that the changes in Bifidobacterium abundance were consistent with those in the breastmilk flora. Functional pathway prediction of breastmilk microflora showed that the enhancement of the metabolic pathways of tyrosine, tryptophan, and fatty acids was significantly different between the groups. We suggest that changes in the breastmilk microbiota can influence the development of food allergies. Breastmilk contains several microbes that have protective effects against food allergies, both by influencing the colonization of intestinal microbiota and by producing butyrate. This study may provide new ideas for improving infant health through early intervention with probiotics.

Experiment 1

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Curated date: 2023/10/23

Curator: Patience Onah

Revision editor(s): Patience Onah

Subjects

Location of subjects: China

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Breast , Feces Mamma,Mammary part of chest,Mammary region,Breast,Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: food allergy Food Hypersensitivity,Food intolerance,food allergy

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Mother-infant

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Healthy pregnant women

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Pregnant women who had regular prenatal check-ups at the hospital and were in good physical and mental health condition.

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 202

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 135

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): 2 weeks

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Non-quantitative PCR

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: LEfSe

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

LDA Score above Threshold for the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) score for studies using the popular LEfSe tool: 2

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: unchanged

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: increased

Simpson Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species evenness: unchanged

Signature 1

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Curated date: 2023/10/23

Curator: Patience Onah

Revision editor(s): Patience Onah

Source: Figure 4B

Description: Differences in the Relative Abundance of Breastmilk Bacteria Between the Food Allergy and Non-Allergy groups by LEfSe analysis.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Healthy pregnant women

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Pseudomonas
Acinetobacter

Revision editor(s): Patience Onah

Signature 2

Edit History Delete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2023/10/23

Curator: Patience Onah

Revision editor(s): Patience Onah, Davvve

Source: Figure 4B

Description: Differences in the Relative Abundance of Breastmilk Bacteria Between the Food Allergy and Non-Allergy groups by LEfSe analysis.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Healthy pregnant women

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Akkermansia
Bifidobacterium
Blautia
Escherichia
Prevotella
Roseburia
Ruminococcus
Shigella
Veillonella
Clostridium
Lachnospiraceae
Lachnospiraceae incertae sedis

Revision editor(s): Patience Onah, Davvve