Structure and fermentation of natural and manufactured lactose-based oligosaccharides

At early stages of life, infant immature intestine is not fully developed, exposing the new-born to potential diseases. Compounds that can exert beneficial actions on the infant intestine are bioactive lactose-based oligosaccharides (LBOs). The natural source of LBOs is mother milk. When human milk is lacking, dietary supplementation with infant formula fortified with manufactured LBOs, such as galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), is pursued. GOS have been shown to have several properties in common with HMOs. LBOs composition and intestinal fate is extensively described for humans, whereas they are hardly investigated for domestic animal. In this PhD thesis, composition of LBOs in equine and porcine colostrum were described and new structures were elucidated. The analysis were performed mainly using liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis techniques. High inter- and intra-individual variation were found for oligosaccharides present in equine and porcine milk. In vivo fermentation fate of porcine milk oligosaccharides (PMOs) was also described analysing PMOs as found in fecal samples of piglets. The results were correlated to existing literature on HMOs. Dietary oligosaccharides are partially present systemically, as suggested from HMO studies. GOS and PMOs in blood, urine and fecal samples from an in vivo feeding trial on piglet were described. Intact dietary oligosaccharides including GOS and milk oligosaccharides from the piglet diet were found in piglet blood and urine samples. All dietary oligosaccharides were fermented/absorbed in vivo, not being detectable in the piglet fecal samples. On the other hand, GOS in vitro fermentation by piglet inoculum delineate a unique fermentation profile regarding GOS size consumption compared to GOS in vitro fermentation by human fecal inoculum. Similar degradation profile regarding GOS linkage types was observed for GOS fermentation by piglet and human inocula.