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Preterm Infant Probiotic Supplement that Promotes Intestinal Health

Detailed Technology Description

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*Abstract

Beneficial Bacterium Supplement for Pasteurized Human Donor Milk Could Protect Infants from Serious Health Disorders

This probiotic supplement could potentially improve the health of preterm infants that are fed human donor milk. In the United States, 1 in 9 babies are born preterm. A mother’s breast milk is the preferred source of nutrition for all babies, but this is especially true in those born preterm. A mother’s milk contains microbes that are important for normal intestinal colonization in infants. The development and maturation of the immune system in preterm infants is at risk without these microbes. When a mother is unable to provide her child milk, the best available substitute is human donor milk. Because it has been pasteurized however, human donor milk may lack critical bacterial species, the lack of which can potentially result in serious health disorders, including colitis. In order to make up for the discrepancy between mother’s breast milk and human donor milk, researchers at the University of Florida are testing a specific probiotic supplement that promises to boost the intestinal health of preterm infants. The beneficial bacterium, Propionibacterium freudenreichii (P. freudenreichii), would be added as a supplement to human donor milk to reduce incidence of gut proinflammatory responses that lead to serious conditions in preterm infants.

Application

Probiotic supplement for human donor milk that boosts intestinal health in preterm infants.

Advantages

• Enhances the benefits of pasteurized human donor milk, creating a substitute that more closely resembles a mother’s breast milk
• Restores the advantages provided by a mother’s milk, reducing sickness and mortality in preterm infants
• Boosts intestinal health of preterm infants, enhancing protective and regulatory immunity
• Has potential for oral administration

Technology

The benefits of the probiotic supplement, P. freudenreichii, has been tested and proven in experiments conducted on mice. University of Florida Researchers initially found that the gut microbe, P. freudenreichii, was more commonly found in infants that were fed breast milk than it was in those fed formula. The evidence of the probiotic supplement promoting favorable protective and regulatory immune responses was demonstrated in healthy mice and with the use of experimental models of colitis. As of now the probiotic supplement has not been tested on human subjects.

*Principal Investigator

Name: Mansour Mohamadzadeh

Department:

Name: Bikash Sahay

Department:

Name: Josef Neu

Department:

Name: Natacha Colliou

Department:

Name: Yaima Lightfoot

Department:

Country/Region

USA