193 research outputs found
Microbes, human milk, and prebiotics
No full textDiet–microbe interactions play a crucial role in the early-life developmental window, exerting health effects in infancy that also extend to later life stages. Breastfeeding is the gold standard infant nutrition that is associated with healthy gut-associated microbial community development, optimal immune system maturation, and defense against pathogens. During early life, maternal breast milk “seeds” the neonate with milk-derived microbes, and acts as a natural prebiotic feeding certain bacterial strains and species, including members of genus Bifidobacterium. Benefits of breastfeeding are largely unavailable to infants fed with formula, therefore addition of prebiotics that can mimic functions of unique breast milk components, for example, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), is used to promote infant well-being. Later in infancy, complementary feeding during weaning provides essential nutrients and further prebiotic compounds, which promote the acquisition and colonization of a higher diversity of gut bacteria, enhancing bacterial production of beneficial metabolites, thus further supporting healthy infant development
Probiotic Intervention Through the Pregnant and Breastfeeding Mother to Reduce Disease Risk in the Child
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Epigenetic Matters: The Link between Early Nutrition, Microbiome, and Long-term Health Development
No full textEpigenetic modifications are among the most important mechanisms by which environmental factors can influence early cellular differentiation and create new phenotypic traits during pregnancy and within the neonatal period without altering the deoxyribonucleic acid sequence. A number of antenatal and postnatal factors, such as maternal and neonatal nutrition, pollutant exposure, and the composition of microbiota, contribute to the establishment of epigenetic changes that can not only modulate the individual adaptation to the environment but also have an influence on lifelong health and disease by modifying inflammatory molecular pathways and the immune response. Postnatal intestinal colonization, in turn determined by maternal flora, mode of delivery, early skin-to-skin contact and neonatal diet, leads to specific epigenetic signatures that can affect the barrier properties of gut mucosa and their protective role against later insults, thus potentially predisposing to the development of late-onset inflammatory diseases. The aim of this review is to outline the epigenetic mechanisms of programming and development acting within early-life stages and to examine in detail the role of maternal and neonatal nutrition, microbiota composition, and other environmental factors in determining epigenetic changes and their short- and long-term effects
Intestinal Microbiome: Functional Aspects in Health and Disease. 88th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop, Playa del Carmen, September 2016
No full textEarly-life interaction with indigenous intestinal microbes is a prerequisite for healthy immune and metabolic maturation. Human infants acquire their gut microbiota predominantly from the mother. A considerable inoculum of microbes is received by the neonate during vaginal delivery. Recent observations suggest that human gut colonization may be initiated prenatally by microbes in amniotic fluid, but the significance of this phenomenon remains unknown. After birth, neonatal gut colonization is guided by human milk factors, which selectively promote the growth of specific microbes, as well as by live microbes present in human milk. Aberrant gut colonization in early life has been associated with an increased risk of noncommunicable diseases in later life. Epidemiological and experimental studies suggest a causal relationship between early-life gut microbiota perturbations and disease risk. Perinatal antibiotic exposure, cesarean section delivery, postnatal antibiotic administration, and formula feeding, which may disrupt intestinal microecology, have been associated with disease development in later life. The modulation of gut microbiota in the perinatal period by pre- and probiotics, for example, may offer a means to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. (C) 2017 Nestec Ltd., Vevey/S. Karger AG, Base
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