Maternal allergy status, infant birth season impact milk microbiome of mothers (Dec 2024, n=196) Maternal Allergic Disease Phenotype and Infant Birth Season Influence the Human Milk Microbiome Early development 

Michael Harrop

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Key takeaways:​

  • Season of birth appeared associated with significant influence on human milk microbiome composition.
  • Milk microbiome varied depending on the type of maternal allergic disease.

ABSTRACT​

Early infancy is a critical period for immune development. In addition to being the primary food source during early infancy, human milk also provides multiple bioactive components that shape the infant gut microbiome and immune system and provides a constant source of exposure to maternal microbiota. Given the potential interplay between allergic diseases and the human microbiome, this study aimed to characterise the milk microbiome of allergic mothers.

Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on milk samples collected at 3 and 6 months postpartum from 196 women with allergic disease. Multivariate linear mixed models were constructed to identify the maternal, infant, and environmental determinants of the milk microbiome. Human milk microbiome composition and beta diversity varied over time (PERMANOVA R2 = 0.011, p = 0.011). The season of infant birth emerged as the strongest determinant of the microbiome community structure (PERMANOVA R2 = 0.014, p = 0.011) with impacts on five of the most abundant taxa. The milk microbiome also varied according to the type of maternal allergic disease (allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergy). Additionally, infant formula exposure reduced the relative abundance of several typical oral taxa in milk.

In conclusion, the milk microbiome of allergic mothers was strongly shaped by the season of infant birth, maternal allergic disease phenotype, and infant feeding mode. Maternal allergic disease history and infant season of birth should therefore be considered in future studies of infant and maternal microbiota.
 
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Interesting! So maybe it's time for a "microbiome zodiac" lol.

While I'm sure that environmental bacteria vary significantly across the seasons, I would have thought that the human host environment would have buffered a lot of that, especially in modern Western cultures where food availability, and thus diet, no longer follows a strong seasonal cycle (in traditional, tribal cultures, diet would have been a strong amplifier of seasonal fluctuations).

The most interesting question is to what extent this annual fluctuation is driven by mere availability of environmental microbes for colonization in a passive sense, and to what extent this is a regulated, evolved mechanism to proactively prepare the gut for anticipated shifts in food availability.
 
Interesting! So maybe it's time for a "microbiome zodiac" lol.
Yeah, this isn't the first study that found a difference based on seasons. So it's possible that character traits based on seasonal microbiome differences have been erroneously attributed to the stars. But I don't know how valid any astrology predictions/traits are.
 
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