HMOs Influencing the Infant Gut Microbiome Maturation in Early Life

The gut microbiome is a system that undergoes rapid changes especially in infancy. This development rate then shifts to a slower pace as it turns into the fully-developed adult microbiome achieved in later childhood. The early life microbiome (ELM) is an indicator of long-term health given its impacts on the different facets of growth and development, and it is found that Human Milk Oligossachardes (HMOs) are one of the main driving factors of the development of the ELM. In the studies discussed by Shillay Kumar Dogra, he details how the test groups given formula with HMO supplementation -- either 2-HMO or 5-HMO -- caught up better with the microbiome trajectory of breastfed infants or the microbiome-age predictor. This lecture shows the results in the microbiome-related endpoints in randomized controlled trials of formula-fed infants given formula that contains blends of HMOs in greater detail.