Infant gut microbiota changes during lactation and how it is shaped by human breast milk microbiota

• Main Author: Priyantha, Wengappuliarachchi
• Other Authors: Friel, James (Human Nutritional Sciences)
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Microbiota
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/30840

Background: Human breast milk is a primary source of bacteria for the infant gut. This study aims to develop bacterial DNA extraction methods to determine whether a relationship exists between breast milk and infant gut microbiota with respect to obesogenic bacteria. Study design: Total of 16 breast milk and respective infants fecal samples were collected to analyze. Methods: Fecal and breast milk bacterial DNA were analyzed to identify the strains up to genus level. Results: Fermicutes was high in breast milk from overweight women and their infant’s gut microbiota but Bacteroidetes increased only in infants’ gut microbiota of overweight women. However, there were no significant relationships between normal-weight and overweight women’ breast milk and between their respective infants’ gut microbiota. Conclusion: This pilot study has shown means that obesogenic bacteria may be introduced into infant gut through the breast milk. However, we were impossible to answer whole concept statistically. === October 2015