Metabolomics in Human Milk Research

Abstract

The link between food and health is complex, particularly for the developing neonate, as the period after birth is the time when long-term programming is occurring notably in the neurologic, immune, and metabolic regulatory systems. Breastfeeding is known to have short- and long-term benefits, and yet the intricate relationship of this unique food with the neonate is not fully understood. Application of multi-omic approaches incorporating new bioinformatic tools will allow for better characterization of phenotypes over the traditional approaches that were limited to crude assessment of growth parameters and observation of clinical disease. Metabolomics has the capability of allowing for a relatively noninvasive assessment of phenotypes via the assessment of small molecules in biofluids such as serum or urine that provides an opportunity to assess metabolism systemically in the developing neonate. Metabolomics can also be used to assess the metabolic activities of gut microbes through measurement of microbial by-products in the stool. Understanding the composition of human milk, how its components work synergistically together, and how they change over time will provide insight into how immunity and metabolism is established in early life, and how it can potentially prevent the development of chronic diseases in later life.