Open AccessEarly-life fecal microbiome and metabolome dynamics in response to an intervention with infant formula containing specific prebiotics and postbiotics
Author(s) -
Alfonso RodríguezHerrera,
Sebastian Tims,
J. Polman,
Rocío Porcel Rubio,
Antonio Muñoz Hoyos,
Massimo Agosti,
Gianluca Lista,
Luigi Corvaglia,
Jan Knol,
Guus Roeselers,
Juan L Pérez Navero
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
american journal of physiology. gastrointestinal and liver physiology/american journal of physiology: gastrointestinal and liver physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.644
H-Index - 169
eISSN - 1522-1547
pISSN - 0193-1857
DOI - 10.1152/ajpgi.00079.2021
Subject(s) - metabolome , feces , gut flora , microbiome , metabolite , metabolomics , physiology , biology , infant formula , bifidobacterium , medicine , lactobacillus , food science , bioinformatics , microbiology and biotechnology , endocrinology , immunology , fermentation
This study examined fecal metabolome dynamics to gain greater functional insights in the interactions between nutrition and the activity of the developing gut microbiota in healthy term born infants. The fecal samples used here originate from a randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical study that assessed the efficacy of infant formula with prebiotics and postbiotics (experimental arm) in comparison to a standard infant formula (control arm). A group of exclusively breast-fed term infants was used as a reference arm. First conventional targeted physiological and microbial measurements were performed, which showed differences in fecal Bifidobacterium levels and corresponding activity (e.g., lactate levels). Next, the overall fecal microbiota composition was determined by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The microbiota composition profiles showed several bacterial groups in the experimental arm to be significantly different from the control arm and mostly closer to the levels observed in the reference arm. Finally, we applied an untargetted UPLC-MS/MS approach to examine changes in the fecal metabolome. Fecal metabolome profiles showed the most distinct separation, up to 404 significantly different metabolites, between the study arms. Our data reveal that infant formula with specific prebiotics and postbiotics may trigger responses in the intestinal microbiota composition that brings it and the ensuing fecal metabolite profile of formula fed infants closer towards those observed in breastfed infants. Furthermore, our results demonstrate a clear need for establishing an infant gut metabolome reference database to translate these metabolite profile dynamics into functional and physiologically relevant responses.