2.2. Human Milk Oligosaccharides Supplementation Shifts Microbiome Development by Favoring a Bifidobacteria-Enriched Microbiome
EHF
In both feeding groups, the microbiome development was strongly influenced by age (A clustering of microbiome composition using the Dirichlet multinomial mixtures approach was performed to investigate the trajectory of the overall microbiome development. We identified an optimal number of five microbial community types (FCT) at the genus level (When analyzing the FCT composition stratified by visits, feeding groups, and cohorts, significant differences were found between the test and control groups at V3 (Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney (WMW) Differences in taxonomic composition between feeding groups at each visit in the EE and LE cohorts were assessed using an enrichment analysis at the metagenomic species (MGS) level (In summary, these observations show that feeding of the HMO-supplemented EHF promoted an enrichment of bifidobacteria and slowed the microbiome maturation. This effect was stronger in infants who were commenced on the HMO-supplemented EHF before 3 months of age.