Dietary supplementation of 3'-sialyllactose or 6'-sialyllactose elicits minimal influence on cognitive and brain development in growing pigs

Rebecca K Golden; Loretta T Sutkus; Sharon M Donovan; Ryan N Dilger

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1337897

Dietary supplementation of 3'-sialyllactose or 6'-sialyllactose elicits minimal influence on cognitive and brain development in growing pigs

Front Behav Neurosci. 2024 Jan 10:17:1337897. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1337897. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Rebecca K Golden^#¹, Loretta T Sutkus^#¹, Sharon M Donovan^{2

3}, Ryan N Dilger^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, United States.
² Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, United States.
³ Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, United States.
⁴ Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, United States.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Sialylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), such as 3'-sialyllactose (3'-SL) and 6'-sialyllactose (6'-SL), are abundant throughout lactation and at much higher concentrations than are present in bovine milk or infant formulas. Previous studies have suggested that sialylated HMO may have neurocognitive benefits in early life. Recent research has focused on infant formula supplementation with key nutrients and bioactives to narrow the developmental gap between formula-fed and breastfed infants. Herein, we investigated the impact of supplemental 3'-SL or 6'-SL on cognitive and brain development at two time-points [postnatal days (PND) 33 and 61]. Two-day-old piglets (N = 75) were randomly assigned to commercial milk replacer ad libitum without or with 3'-SL or 6'-SL (added in a powdered form at a rate of 0.2673% on an as-is weight basis). Cognitive development was assessed via novel object recognition and results were not significant at both time-points (p > 0.05). Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess structural brain development. Results varied between scan type, diet, and time-point. A main effect of diet was observed for absolute volume of white matter and 9 other regions of interest (ROI), as well as for relative volume of the pons on PND 30 (p < 0.05). Similar effects were observed on PND 58. Diffusion tensor imaging indicated minimal differences on PND 30 (p > 0.05). However, several dietary differences across the diffusion outcomes were observed on PND 58 (p < 0.05) indicating dietary impacts on brain microstructure. Minimal dietary differences were observed from myelin water fraction imaging at either time-point. Overall, sialyllactose supplementation had no effects on learning and memory as assessed by novel object recognition, but may influence temporally-dependent aspects of brain development.

Keywords: 3′-sialyllactose; 6′-sialyllactose; MRI; brain development; cognition; sialic acid.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Kyowa Hakko Bio CO., LTD., Tokyo, Japan funded this research. After initial contributions in study design, the funders did not participate in sample collection, data analysis, interpretation of the data, or writing of the manuscript.