Cell Host & Microbe
Volume 28, Issue 2, 12 August 2020, Pages 285-297.e4
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Article
Breastmilk Feeding Practices Are Associated with the Co-Occurrence of Bacteria in Mothers’ Milk and the Infant Gut: the CHILD Cohort Study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2020.06.009Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Breastfeeding exclusivity and duration strongly influence infant gut microbiota

  • A few bacterial species co-occur in mothers’ milk and their infants’ stool

  • This co-occurrence is reduced when breastmilk is pumped and fed from a bottle

  • Bacteria in breastmilk contribute to overall infant gut microbiota composition

Summary

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

microbiome
microbiota
breastmilk
human milk
breastfeeding
pumped milk
infant
gut
CHILD Cohort Study

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16

These authors contributed equally

17

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