Abstract
Background: Preterm birth and formula feeding increase the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a gut inflammatory disease known to be associated with gut microbiota (GM) changes in infants. Supplemental bovine colostrum may protect against formula-induced NEC via GM changes. We hypothesised that feeding colostrum before, after, or during formula feeding affects NEC sensitivity via changes to GM. Methods: Colonic GM (profiled by 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing) was compared in preterm pigs fed colostrum for 4 days, either before, after, or together with formula feeding for 4 days. Correlations between GM and gut parameters were assessed on day 5 or 9. Results: Both exclusive and partial colostrum feeding induced higher GM diversity, lower Enterococcus abundance, and improved intestinal maturation parameters (villus structure, digestive enzyme activities, permeability), relative to exclusive formula feeding (all p < 0.05). Across feeding regimens, Enterococcus abundance was inversely correlated with intestinal maturation parameters. Conversely, there was no correlation between GM changes and early NEC lesions. Conclusion: Bovine colostrum inhibits formula-induced Enterococcus overgrowth and gut dysfunctions just after preterm birth but these effects are not causally linked. Optimising diet-related host responses, not GM, may be critical to prevent NEC in preterm newborn pigs and infants. Impact: Supplement of bovine colostrum to formula feeding modified the gut microbiota by increasing species diversity and reducing Enterococcus abundance, while concurrently improving intestinal functions in preterm pigs. Diet-related changes to the gut microbiota were not clearly associated with development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm pigs, suggesting that diet-related gut microbiota effects are not critical for diet-related NEC protection. The study highlights the potential to use bovine colostrum as a supplement to formula feeding for preterm infants lacking human milk.
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Tidsskrift | Pediatric Research |
ISSN | 0031-3998 |
DOI | |
Status | E-pub ahead of print - 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:The study was funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark (NEOCOL, grant number 6150-00004B) and Biofiber Damino, Denmark. The funding bodies were not engaged in the study design, sample collection, data analysis and interpretation, writing of this article or decision to submit it for publication. Open access funding provided by Copenhagen University.
Funding Information:
We want to thanks Xiaoyu Pan, Yanqi Li, Xudong Yan, Yueming Peng, Jane Povlsen, Britta Karlsson and Denitsa Vladimirova Stefanova for their support with animal procedures and/or laboratory analysis. L.Y. was supported by the China Scholarship Council under a PhD scholarship (No. 202006780012).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.