The application of metabolomics in neonatology offers an approach to investigate the complex relationship between nutrition and infant health. Characterization of the metabolome of human milk enables an investigation into nutrients that affect the neonatal metabolism and identification of dietary interventions for infants at risk of diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). In this study, we aimed to identify differences in the metabolome of breast milk of 48 mothers with preterm infants with NEC and non-NEC healthy controls. A minimum significant difference was observed in the human milk metabolome between the mothers of infants with NEC and mothers of healthy control infants. However, significant differences in the metabolome related to fatty acid metabolism, oligosaccharides, amino sugars, amino acids, vitamins and oxidative stress-related metabolites were observed when comparing milk from mothers with control infants of ≤1.0 kg birth weight and >1.5 kg birth weight. Understanding the functional biological features of mothers' milk that may modulate infant health is important in the future of tailored nutrition and care of the preterm newborn.
Keywords: breast milk; human milk; metabolites; metabolomics; necrotizing enterocolitis; newborn; prematurity.