Residential green environments are associated with human milk oligosaccharide diversity and composition

Mirkka Lahdenperä; Laura Galante; Carlos Gonzales-Inca; Jussi Vahtera; Jaana Pentti; Samuli Rautava; Niina Käyhkö; Chloe Yonemitsu; Julia Gupta; Lars Bode; Hanna Lagström

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-27317-1

Residential green environments are associated with human milk oligosaccharide diversity and composition

Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 5;13(1):216. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-27317-1.

Authors

Mirkka Lahdenperä^{1

2

3}, Laura Galante^{4

5

6

7}, Carlos Gonzales-Inca⁸, Jussi Vahtera^{5

6}, Jaana Pentti^{5

6

9}, Samuli Rautava^{10

11}, Niina Käyhkö⁸, Chloe Yonemitsu¹², Julia Gupta¹², Lars Bode¹², Hanna Lagström^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. Mirkka.Lahdenpera@utu.fi.
² Department of Public Health, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. Mirkka.Lahdenpera@utu.fi.
³ Centre for Population Health Research, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. Mirkka.Lahdenpera@utu.fi.
⁴ Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵ Department of Public Health, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
⁶ Centre for Population Health Research, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
⁷ School of Health and Social Care, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK.
⁸ Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁹ Clinicum, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatrics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
¹¹ Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
¹² 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.

Abstract

Increased exposure to greener environments has been suggested to lead to health benefits in children, but the associated mechanisms in early life, particularly via biological mediators such as altered maternal milk composition, remain largely unexplored. We investigated the associations between properties of the mother's residential green environment, measured as (1) greenness (Normalized Difference Vegetation index, NDVI), (2) Vegetation Cover Diversity (VCDI) and (3) Naturalness Index (NI), and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), known for their immune- and microbiota-related health effects on the infant (N = 795 mothers). We show that HMO diversity increases and concentrations of several individual HMOs and HMO groups change with increased VCDI and NI in residential green environments. This suggests that variation in residential green environments may influence the infant via maternal milk through modified HMO composition. The results emphasize the mediating role of breastfeeding between the residential green environments and health in early life.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Breast Feeding
Child
Female
Humans
Infant
Microbiota*
Milk, Human*
Mothers
Oligosaccharides

Substances

Oligosaccharides

Grants and funding

R21 HD088953/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States