Comprehensive Profiles
of Human Milk Oligosaccharides Yield Highly Sensitive and Specific
Markers for Determining Secretor Status in Lactating Mothers
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Abstract
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), as an abundant and
bioactive component of breast milk, work in many ways to promote the
health of breast fed infants. The expression of HMOs has been shown
to vary in accordance with Lewis blood type and secretor status, as
women of different blood types differ in the expression of α1,2
fucosyltransferase (FUT2) and α1,3/4 fucosyltransferase (FUT3).
In this study, HMOs were extracted from the milk of 60 women from
The Gambia, Africa with various Lewis and secretor blood types. The
HMOs were profiled using high resolution HPLC-Chip/TOF mass spectrometry.
Notably, the amounts of fucosylation varied significantly between
Le(a+b-) nonsecretors, Le(a-b+) and Le(a-b-) secretors, and Le(a-b-)
nonsecretors. With higher frequency of expression of the recessive
Lewis negative and nonsecretor phenotypes in West African populations,
the HMO profiles of several milks from women of these phenotypes were
examined, demonstrating decreased amounts of total oligosaccharide
abundance and lower relative amounts of fucosylation. Also in this
study, four specific fucosylated structures (2′FL, LNFP I,
LDFT, and LNDFH I) were determined to be specific and sensitive glycan
markers for rapidly determining secretor status without the need for
serological testing