CO26 1H NMR-BASED METABOLOMICS ON HUMAN MATURE MILK REVEALS THE EFFECTS OF ORAL VSL#3 PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTATION TO MOTHERS

Background: Perinatal manipulation of maternal gut microflora has been recently proposed as a possible dietary strategy to reduce the risk of disease in the infant. However, how a modulation of gut microbiota can affect the host physiology, the breast milk composition, and finally the infant physiology is still unclear. We applied a metabolomics approach, based on 1H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate analysis, to characterize the mature breast milk metabolome. Furthermore, we evaluated the possibility of identifying changes occurring in the breast milk composition as induced by oral supplementation with the probiotic VSL#3. Materials and Methods: Pregnant women have been administered perinatally either oral VSL#3 or placebo. Breast milk was collected one month after delivery, extracted into polar and organic phases and analysed by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The metabolic profiles were defined by applying statistical multivariate methods on the collected spectra. Immunological assays were performed on the same milk samples to determine the interleukin levels. Results: 1H NMR spectra allowed to classify the milk samples on the basis of Lewis epitopes. VSL#3 supplementation to mothers induced a different milk metabolome characterized by a significant decrease in the levels of some fucosyl-oligosaccharides and citrate levels, and an increase in MUFA, phosphatidylglycerols, and succinate levels. Milks from probiotic supplemented mothers showed a significant increase in TGF-b and IL-10 levels compared to the placebo group. Conclusions: 1H-NMR-based global metabolic profiling is a powerful analytical approach to investigate the subtle changes on human milk induced by a dietary intervention may induce in human milk. Our results can have important implications give a good insight to understand how the modulation of mother gut microbiota may affects the breast milk composition, and thence the infant health.