Cell
Volume 164, Issue 5, 25 February 2016, Pages 859-871
Journal home page for Cell

Article
Sialylated Milk Oligosaccharides Promote Microbiota-Dependent Growth in Models of Infant Undernutrition

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.01.024Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Highlights

  • Malawian mothers with undernourished infants have decreased milk oligosaccharides

  • Sialylated milk sugars promote growth of animals colonized with infant microbiota

  • Growth promotion does not occur with provision of inulin or in germ-free mice

  • Sialylated oligosaccharides impact liver, muscle, and brain metabolism

Summary

Identifying interventions that more effectively promote healthy growth of children with undernutrition is a pressing global health goal. Analysis of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) from 6-month-postpartum mothers in two Malawian birth cohorts revealed that sialylated HMOs are significantly less abundant in those with severely stunted infants. To explore this association, we colonized young germ-free mice with a consortium of bacterial strains cultured from the fecal microbiota of a 6-month-old stunted Malawian infant and fed recipient animals a prototypic Malawian diet with or without purified sialylated bovine milk oligosaccharides (S-BMO). S-BMO produced a microbiota-dependent augmentation of lean body mass gain, changed bone morphology, and altered liver, muscle, and brain metabolism in ways indicative of a greater ability to utilize nutrients for anabolism. These effects were also documented in gnotobiotic piglets using the same consortium and Malawian diet. These preclinical models indicate a causal, microbiota-dependent relationship between S-BMO and growth promotion.

Cited by (0)