Relationship between Milk Microbiota, Bacterial Load, Macronutrients, and Human Cells during Lactation
Open accessAbstract
Human breast milk is considered the optimal nutrition for infants, providing essential nutrients and a broad range of bioactive compounds, as well as its own microbiota. However, the interaction among those components and the biological role of milk microorganisms is still uncovered. Thus, our aim was to identify the relationships between milk microbiota composition, bacterial load, macronutrients, and human cells during lactation. Bacterial load was estimated in milk samples from a total of 21 healthy mothers through lactation time by bacteria-specific qPCR targeted to the single-copy gene fusA. Milk microbiome composition and diversity was estimated by 16S-pyrosequencing and the structure of these bacteria in the fluid was studied by flow cytometry, qPCR, and microscopy. Fat, protein, lactose, and dry extract of milk as well as the number of somatic cells were also analyzed. We observed that milk bacterial communities were generally complex, and showed individual-specific profiles. Milk microbiota was dominated by Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Streptococcus, and Acinetobacter. Staphylococcus aureus was not detected in any of these samples from healthy mothers. There was high variability in composition and number of bacteria per milliliter among mothers and in some cases even within mothers at different time points. The median bacterial load was 10(6) bacterial cells/ml through time, higher than those numbers reported by 16S gene PCR and culture methods. Furthermore, milk bacteria were present in a free-living, "planktonic" state, but also in equal proportion associated to human immune cells. There was no correlation between bacterial load and the amount of immune cells in milk, strengthening the idea that milk bacteria are not sensed as an infection by the immune system.
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Streptococcal species constitute the majority of the infant oral microbiota.
“As such, streptococcal species constitute the majority of the infant oral microbiota.”
From The oral microbiome: Role of key organisms and complex networks in oral health and disease (2021) · cites this paper as [144]
Streptococci are capable of adhering to epithelial cells and are a dominant bacterial group in breast milk.
“Streptococci are capable of adhering to epithelial cells and are a dominant bacterial group in breast milk.144”
From The oral microbiome: Role of key organisms and complex networks in oral health and disease (2021) · cites this paper as [144]
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- Authors
- Boix-Amorós, A., Collado, M. C., & Mira, A.
- Affiliations
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- ORCID
- Boix-Amorós, Alba
- Venue
- Frontiers in Microbiology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2016-04-20
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- 1281-1281
- ISSN
- 1664-302X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4837678
- OpenAlex
- W2337004060
- Cited by
- 283
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 42 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 26.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Microbiology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- RiuNet (Universitat Politècnica de València) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- European Research Council (639226)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Infant Nutrition and Health
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Milk Quality and Mastitis in Dairy Cows
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Keywords
- breast milk microbiota, lactation, bacterial load, somatic cells, bacterioplankton, immune cells, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Streptococcus, Acinetobacter, bacterial diversity, infant nutrition
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