Breast milk can correct intestinal complications – 07/18/2023 – Science

Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) identified that childbirth is not a determining factor for the construction of the child’s microbiota, contrary to what the scientific literature points out.

Primary results from the Germina Project, which monitors the development of 500 children in the first thousand days, show that, in the first three months, breast milk can correct eventual intestinal complications.

Defined as the set of microorganisms that inhabit the intestine, the microbiota is related to several autoimmune diseases, diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, food allergies in the skin and inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease.

In premature infants, for example, a very unregulated microbiota, with a large number of dysbiotic bacteria, which favor an imbalance in the chain of microorganisms, can result in sepsis, infections that are one of the main causes of infant mortality.

“We observed that breast milk carries a load of beneficial bacteria that overcomes the harmful bacteria and thus manages to give resilience to the microbiota. impact on the modulation of the microbiota. The main factor of modulation is milk”, said the study coordinator, Professor Carla Taddei, a collaborating professor at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICB) and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF) at USP, to the advisory ICB-USP press release.

In contrast, formula milk was unable to produce the same degree of positive modulations. “What will determine how the microbiota will be are, mainly, the interactions of bacteria with the environment of the intestine, in addition to family genetics and the various events that happen in those first days, such as childbirth, the medications that the child receives [principalmente antibióticos] and the type of diet”, explains the teacher.

It also makes little difference whether breast milk comes from the mother or from milk banks. This is because a previous study conducted by FCF-USP at the University Hospital, and coordinated by the professor, identified that, despite the nutritional differences provided by pasteurization, the results in modulating the microbiota are the same.

The most recent project, “Evolution of the fecal microbiota of premature newborns submitted to colostrum therapy during the period of hospitalization in a neonatal intensive care unit”, coordinated by Taddei, is supported by FAPESP.

Long lasting balance

The formation of the microbiota in the first two years of life defines how it will be during the remainder, since it is at this time that the basal microbiota is built, which will remain, regardless of eating habits and health issues.

“After this period, what modulates the microbiota is the environment and the diet. However, no matter how much the microbiota undergoes changes, at any moment it can return to the way it was in the first two years. For example, if an adult becomes becoming vegan, his microbiota will be altered. But if he abandons veganism, it will return to its basal form”, points out Taddei.

For mothers who cannot breastfeed, the best solution is therefore to purchase breast milk from milk banks. “In hospitals, milk goes through several evaluations that guarantee microbiological safety and identify its nutritional properties. As a result, Baby Friendly hospitals select the milk that best suits the properties that each baby needs, according, for example, to their weight and their levels of calcium in the blood”, details the teacher.

DNA sequencing

The research results were obtained by sequencing data from the DNA of the 500 volunteers. This procedure is carried out using an innovative technology in the country, called “shotgun”, which allows analyzing millions of samples’ information in a short period.

“With this technology, we are able to analyze 5 million DNA sequences per child. While with conventional machines we can manage something around 100 to 200 thousand. At the end of these thousand days, we will have a contingent of data that can still be analyzed for more than ten years”, says Taddei.

The resource and the project are the result of a US$ 2.8 million grant from Wellcome Leap, a British non-profit organization. With that, seven groups of researchers from USP, from different institutions, got together in the Germina Project to analyze in detail what is considered a healthy development of a child up to three years old, from the point of view of genetics, microbiology, nutrition, speech therapy , pediatrics, psychology, child psychiatry, and developmental neuroscience.

“We hope to make a model that can predict, in the first three months, how the child will be at three years old, and thus guide personalized treatments”, concludes the professor.