Maternal obesity alters human milk oligosaccharides content and correlates with early acquisition of late colonizers in the neonatal gut microbiome.

Mothers with obesity had decreased concentrations of key human milk oligosaccharides shortly after birth compared to mothers with normal BMI.

• Breastmilk samples were collected at 48 hours, one month, and three months postpartum from 97 mothers.
• Targeted and untargeted metabolomics were used to profile breastmilk samples.
• The cohort was composed of Mexican mother-infant dyads in a longitudinal study design.
• Specific HMOs identified as differing included 6'SL, LNnT, and LNT.

Maternal obesity was associated with reduced abundance of early gut colonizers (Enterobacteriaceae) in infant fecal microbiota.

• Shotgun metagenomics was used to analyze infant fecal microbiome composition in a subset of samples.
• Enterobacteriaceae were identified as early colonizers whose abundance was reduced in infants of mothers with obesity.
• This finding was observed across subsequent months of sampling.
• The reduction in Enterobacteriaceae correlated with decreased HMO concentrations in breastmilk from obese mothers.

Maternal obesity was associated with increased abundance of intermediate and late colonizers, specifically Bifidobacterium and members of the Lachnospiraceae family, in the infant gut microbiome.

• Bifidobacterium and Lachnospiraceae family members were identified as intermediate and late colonizers showing increased abundance.
• These taxa negatively correlated with HMOs such as 6'SL, LNnT, and LNT.
• The altered microbial succession was observed over subsequent months postpartum.
• These changes suggest a perturbation of the normal gut microbiome succession timeline in infants of obese mothers.

Functional profiling of the infant gut microbiome revealed alterations in metabolic pathways related to polyamine biosynthesis associated with maternal obesity.

• Functional profiling was conducted using shotgun metagenomics data.
• Alterations in polyamine biosynthesis pathways suggest changes in microbial metabolism linked to maternal BMI.
• These pathway alterations were found in a subset of infant fecal samples.
• The findings implicate changes in microbial functional capacity, not just compositional shifts, in infants of obese mothers.

Maternal BMI-associated variations in HMO composition correlated with altered neonatal gut microbiome succession in a Latin American cohort.

• The study included 97 mother-infant dyads from Mexico, representing a Latin American population.
• Longitudinal sampling occurred at 48 hours, one month, and three months postpartum.
• The study used both targeted and untargeted metabolomics alongside shotgun metagenomics.
• Authors describe this as exploratory research serving as 'proof of concept,' acknowledging the need for larger-scale studies to validate findings.
• The authors highlight the interplay between maternal BMI and human milk bioactives as important for understanding early immune development in neonates.