Analysis of the biosynthetic flux in bovine milk oligosaccharides reveals competition between sulfated and sialylated species and the existence of glucuronic acid-containing analogues.

We previously observed that sialylated bovine milk oligosaccharides (BMOs) decline in both absolute and relative abundances over the initial stages of bovine lactation, with initial evidence suggesting that this decline occurred due to increased concentrations of unique sulfated BMOs. Since both sulfated and sialylated BMOs have distinct bioactivites, a follow up study was launched in order to more clearly define relative changes in these classes of BMOs over the first week of lactation in dairy cattle. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) and several liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods, including a novel multiplexed tandem MS method, were used to profile the BMOs extracted from milk collected from the same 20 Holstein cows at milkings 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 14 post-partum. In addition to clearly validating that sulfated and sialylated BMOs exist in direct biosynthetic completion, our study has identified over 170 unique BMOs including 14 unique glucuronic acid-containing trisaccharides.

Maternal Intake of Dietary Fat Pre-Programs Offspring's Gut Ecosystem Altering Colonization Resistance and Immunity to Infectious Colitis in Mice.

SCOPE: The transgenerational impact of dietary fat remains unclear. Here, the role of maternal fat consumption as a modulator of gut microbial communities and infectious disease outcomes in their offspring is explored. METHODS AND RESULTS: C57BL/6 mice are fed isocaloric high-fat diets throughout breeding, gestation and lactation. Diets contained either milk fat (MF), olive oil (OO) or corn oil (CO), with or without fish oil. The pups born to maternally exposed mice are weaned on to chow and raised into adulthood. At 8 weeks, the offsprings are either euthanized for colonic 16S rRNA analysis or challenged with the enteric pathogen, Citrobacter rodentium. Maternal CO exposure resulted in unique clustering of bacterial communities in offspring compared with MF and OO. Diets rich in CO reduced survival in offspring challenged with C. rodentium. The addition of fish oil did not improve mortality caused by CO and worsened disease outcomes when combined with OO. Unlike the unsaturated diets, MF is protective with and without fish oil. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these data reveal that maternal intake of fatty acids do have transgenerational impacts on their offspring's bacteriome and enteric infection risk. Based on this study, saturated fats should be included in maternal diets.