Study on the Molecular Structure and Content of Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) in Breast Milk and Its Effect on Infant Health in China

1. Analyze and compare the differences in HMOs components among mothers who give birth at different gestational weeks;
2. Longitudinal observation of weekly changes in HMOs concentrations of premature mothers within 1 month of delivery;
3. Validate the association between HMOs components in preterm mothers and fecal intestinal flora in infants at 6 months of age.

Research content

1. The LC-MS method will be used to detect the content of HMOs in preterm mothers and compared with the corresponding components in term breast milk during the postpartum period to analyze the effects of different gestational weeks on HMOs;
2. The intestinal flora 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing method will be used to determine the bacterial gene profile in the fecal DNA samples of infants, and the differences between the gestational age groups (term and preterm infants) were compared, and the preterm infants in this group were plotted Evolution of intestinal flora within 6 months of birth;
3. Use statistical methods to verify the association between HMOs components in preterm mothers and the establishment of intestinal flora in infants.