Beneficial bacteria in the infant gut uses nitrogen from breast milk to support baby's health

Date:
March 27, 2023
Source:
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Summary:
A nutrition scientist who has spent his career studying breast milk
has demonstrated how beneficial microbes in the gut of infants
use nitrogen from human milk to support pediatric nutrition and
development.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A University of Massachusetts Amherst nutrition scientist who has spent
his career studying breast milk has demonstrated how beneficial microbes
in the gut of infants use nitrogen from human milk to support pediatric nutrition and development.


==========================================================================
"The molecules in breast milk not only feed the baby but also feed
the baby's microbiome," says David Sela, associate professor of food
science and director of the Fergus M. Clydesdale Center for Foods for
Health and Wellness. "This changed the way people think about the role
of human milk in infant nutrition." Microbes that feed on breast milk
play key roles in an infant's growth, from jump-starting the immune and digestive systems to aiding in brain development.

The molecular underpinnings of these processes, however, are not well understood.

More than a decade ago, Sela and his team noticed that Bifidobacterium infantis, a beneficial bacterium that colonizes the infant gut, had
the ability to degrade urea, a molecule that mammals excrete as waste
in urine.

"There's a lot of urea in breast milk and since it's typically excreted
out of the system, and this major colonizer has the ability to degrade
it, we thought it's possible that the microbes are utilizing this waste
product as a nitrogen source within the infant gut," Sela says.

In a paper published Monday, March 27, in the journal Gut Microbes,
senior author Sela describes how B. infantisutilizes urea from human
milk to recycle nitrogen in the infant's gut microbiome. The paper lays
the groundwork for applying this discovery to improve infant health
around the world by identifying molecular targets to improve nitrogen metabolism efficiency.

"This might lead to nutritional interventions and diagnostic tools to
address infant nutrition, not only in the Western world, but also in
developing countries," Sela says. "If we have a better understanding
of how the microbiome contributes to nutrition, we have a better
understanding of how to provide nourishment to not only healthy infants
but also infants who are preterm or are more predisposed to diseases,
sickness and conditions that are deleterious to their health." After
years of research, Sela and his team in the Sela Lab have achieved an understanding of the process from the microbial side, which was "the overarching objective of the project." Since 2021, Sela's research
has been funded by a five-year, $1.69 million grant from the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

To test their hypothesis, researchers in the Sela lab, including lead
author Xiaomeng You, a graduate research assistant, demonstrated that
the B. infantis bacteria, when fed urea, were able to use it as a
nitrogen source.

They then tracked the urea nitrogen with a stable isotope. "It gets incorporated into all kinds of bacterial products that the bacteria
makes, and that was really insightful," Sela says. "It gives us the
strongest evidence that the bacteria is utilizing urea nitrogen for its
basic metabolism." The next step is to examine the process in the human
system -- "looking at mom's milk, infant growth and development, and
microbiome function as it pertains to urea utilization," Sela says. "If
we want to have clinical or nutritional relevancy in humans, we have
to understand how it works in babies." Sela and his team are eager to
tackle the ongoing challenges. "There are a lot of open questions that
we generated from this study that we're excited to follow up on."
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Breastfeeding # Infant's_Health # Breast_Cancer
o Mind_&_Brain
# Parenting # Infant_and_Preschool_Learning #
Child_Development
o Plants_&_Animals
# Organic # Soil_Types # Bacteria
* RELATED_TERMS
o Breastfeeding o Colostrum o Nutrition_and_pregnancy o
Dairy_cattle o Mammary_gland o Dairy_product o BRCA1 o Camel

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_Massachusetts_Amherst. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Xiaomeng You, Asha Rani, Ezgi O"zcan, Yang Lyu, David A. Sela.

Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis utilizes human milk urea to
recycle nitrogen within the infant gut microbiome. Gut Microbes,
2023; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2023.2192546 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230327160617.htm

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