Environmental toxicants in breast milk of Norwegian mothers and gut bacteria composition and metabolites in their infants at 1 month

• DOI: 10.1186/s40168-019-0645-2
• Publication Date: 2019-02-27T15:02:46Z
• Authors: Nina Iszatt; Stefan Janssen; Virissa Lenters; Cecilie Dahl; Hein Stigum; Rob Knight; Siddhartha Mandal; Shyamal Peddada; Antonio González; Tore Midtvedt; Merete Eggesbø
• Keywords: Toxicant

Early disruption of the microbial community may influence life-long health. Environmental toxicants can contaminate breast milk and developing infant gut microbiome is directly exposed. We investigated whether environmental in breastmilk affect composition function at 1 month. measured breastmilk, fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), from 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing using samples 267 mother-child pairs Norwegian Microbiota Cohort (NoMIC). tested 28 chemical exposures: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated flame retardants (PBDEs), per- polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), organochlorine pesticides. assessed exposure alpha diversity/SCFAs elastic net regression modeling generalized linear models, adjusting for confounders, variation beta diversity (UniFrac), taxa abundance (ANCOM), predicted metagenomes (PiCRUSt) low, medium, high exposed groups. PBDE-28 surfactant perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) were associated with less diversity. Some sub-OTUs Lactobacillus, an important genus early life, lower infants relative “high” (> 80th percentile) vs. “low” (< 20th toxicant this cohort. Moreover, functionality, explaining up to 34% variance acetic propionic SCFAs, essential signaling molecules. Per one standard deviation exposure, was (− 24% [95% CI − 35% 14%] mean), PCB-209 15% 29% 0.4%]). Conversely, PFOA dioxin-like PCB-167 61% (95% 87%) 22% 8% 35%) more acid, respectively. during a critical developmental window. Future studies are needed replicate these novel findings investigate has any impact on child