Breastmilk Feeding Practices Are Associated with the Co-Occurrence of Bacteria in Mothers' Milk and the Infant Gut: the CHILD Cohort Study

Kelsey Fehr; Shirin Moossavi; Hind Sbihi; Rozlyn C T Boutin; Lars Bode; Bianca Robertson; Chloe Yonemitsu; Catherine J Field; Allan B Becker; Piushkumar J Mandhane; Malcolm R Sears; Ehsan Khafipour; Theo J Moraes; Padmaja Subbarao; B Brett Finlay; Stuart E Turvey; Meghan B Azad

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2020.06.009

Breastmilk Feeding Practices Are Associated with the Co-Occurrence of Bacteria in Mothers' Milk and the Infant Gut: the CHILD Cohort Study

Cell Host Microbe. 2020 Aug 12;28(2):285-297.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.06.009. Epub 2020 Jul 10.

Authors

Kelsey Fehr¹, Shirin Moossavi², Hind Sbihi³, Rozlyn C T Boutin⁴, Lars Bode⁵, Bianca Robertson⁵, Chloe Yonemitsu⁵, Catherine J Field⁶, Allan B Becker⁷, Piushkumar J Mandhane⁸, Malcolm R Sears⁹, Ehsan Khafipour¹⁰, Theo J Moraes¹¹, Padmaja Subbarao¹², B Brett Finlay¹³, Stuart E Turvey¹⁴, Meghan B Azad¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and Developmental Origins of Chronic Diseases in Children Network (DEVOTION), Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
² Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and Developmental Origins of Chronic Diseases in Children Network (DEVOTION), Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Digestive Disease Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Pediatrics, BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁴ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics and Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence (MOMI CORE), University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
⁷ Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and Developmental Origins of Chronic Diseases in Children Network (DEVOTION), Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Digestive Disease Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁸ Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
⁹ Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹² Department of Pediatrics Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹³ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: bfinlay@msl.ubc.ca.
¹⁴ Department of Pediatrics, BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: sturvey@bcchr.ca.
¹⁵ Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and Developmental Origins of Chronic Diseases in Children Network (DEVOTION), Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Electronic address: meghan.azad@umanitoba.ca.

PMID: 32652062
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.06.009

Abstract

Gut microbiota play a critical role in infant health. It is now accepted that breastmilk contains live bacteria from endogenous and exogenous sources, but it remains unclear whether these bacteria transfer to the infant gut and whether this process is influenced by breastmilk feeding practices. Here, we show that certain bacteria, including Streptococcus spp. and Veillonella dispar, co-occur in mothers' milk and their infants' stool, and co-occurrence is reduced when infants receive pumped breastmilk. The relative abundances of commonly shared species are positively correlated between breastmilk and stool. Overall, gut microbiota composition is strongly associated with breastfeeding exclusivity and duration but not breastmilk feeding mode (nursing versus pumping). Moreover, breastmilk bacteria contributed to overall gut microbiota variation to a similar extent as other modifiers of the infant microbiome, such as birth mode. These results provide evidence that breastmilk may transfer bacteria to the infant gut and influence microbiota development.

Keywords: CHILD Cohort Study; breastfeeding; breastmilk; gut; human milk; infant; microbiome; microbiota; pumped milk.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Breast Feeding / methods*
Breast Milk Expression / methods
Cohort Studies
Feces / microbiology
Feeding Behavior
Female
Gastrointestinal Microbiome / physiology*
Humans
Infant
Milk, Human / microbiology*
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Streptococcus / classification
Streptococcus / isolation & purification*
Veillonella / isolation & purification*

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Supplementary concepts

Veillonella dispar