33015
document
Maternal breast-milk and intestinal bifidobacteria guide the compositional development of the Bifidobacterium microbiota in infants at risk of allergic disease . BACKGROUND The sources and the impact of maternal bacteria on the initial inoculum of the intestinal microflora of newborn infants remain elusive . OBJECTIVE To assess the association between maternal breast-milk and fecal bifidobacteria and infants ' fecal bifidobacteria . METHODS Sixty-one mother-infant pairs were included , special emphasis being placed on the maternal allergic status . Bifidobacteria were analysed by a direct PCR method in fecal samples from mothers at 30-35 weeks of gestation and from infants at 1 month of age and from breast-milk samples 1 month post-partum . RESULTS Fecal Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Bifidobacterium bifidum colonization frequencies and counts among mother-infant pairs correlated significantly ( P=0.005 and 0.02 for frequencies , respectively , and P=0.002 and 0.01 for counts , respectively ) . Only infants of allergic , atopic mothers were colonized with B. adolescentis . Each of the breast-milk samples contained bifidobacteria [ median 1.4 x 10 ( 3 ) bacterial cells/mL ; interquartile range ( IQR ) 48.7-3.8 x 10 ( 3 ) ] . Bifidobacterium longum was the most frequently detected species in breast-milk . Allergic mothers had significantly lower amounts of bifidobacteria in breast-milk compared with non-allergic mothers [ median 1.3 x 10 ( 3 ) bacterial cells/mL ( IQR 22.4-3.0 x 10 ( 3 ) ) vs. 5.6 x 10 ( 3 ) bacterial cells/mL ( 1.8 x 10 ( 3 ) -1.8 x 10 ( 4 ) ) , respectively , ( P=0.004 ) ] , and their infants had concurrently lower counts of bifidobacteria in feces [ 3.9 x 10 ( 8 ) bacterial cells/g ( IQR 6.5 x 10 ( 6 ) -1.5 x 10 ( 9 ) ) in infants of allergic mothers , vs. 2.5 x 10 ( 9 ) bacterial cells/g ( 6.5 x 10 ( 8 ) -3.2 x 10 ( 10 ) ) in infants of non-allergic mothers , P=0.013 ] . CONCLUSIONS Breast-milk contains significant numbers of bifidobacteria and the maternal allergic status further deranges the counts of bifidobacteria in breast-milk . Maternal fecal and breast-milk bifidobacterial counts impacted on the infants ' fecal Bifidobacterium levels . Breast-milk bacteria should thus be considered an important source of bacteria in the establishment of infantile intestinal microbiota .
33016
Intervention_Other
direct PCR
33017
Outcome_Physical
Bifidobacteria
33018
Outcome_Physical
Bifidobacterium longum
33019
Outcome_Physical
bifidobacteria
33020
Outcome_Physical
bifidobacteria in feces