What's
Human
Milk
Oligosaccharide?

Importance of breast milk

"Breast milk should be fed to baby.", it is well-known and descendent story for a long time.

Breast milk is an ideal, safe and clean food for newborns and infants and contains antibodies that overcome many common childhood diseases, providing all the energy and nutrients needed in the early stages of life. Also, breastfeeding women have relatively lower risk to ovarian cancer and breast cancer, so breast feeding is strongly recommended. ¹

Breast milk influences immune modulation, intestinal development and healthy microbiome formation, which keeps respiratory and gut system from infection and diarrhea. Additionally it protects infant from severe disease like infectious colitis and necrotizing enterocolitis.

Breast milk contains bioactive nutrients and other ingredients that regulate this process, and human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) is the key ingredient in it. ²

https://www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_1
Human Milk Oligosaccharides Influence Neonatal Mucosal and Systemic Immunity Ann Nutr Metab 2016;69(suppl 2):42-51

Research history and production of human milk
oligosaccharide (HMO)

The mortality rate of infants within one year after birth in the 1900s rose from 20% to 30%.

At that time, breastfeeding was not considered as an important issue, but since breastfeeding infants had a seven-fold higher survival rate than infant formula fed infants because they had greater resistance to various diseases including infectious diarrhea, various research began to find out the reason for that.

In the 1900s, Dr. Henry Tissier of the Pasteur Institute found that beneficial bifidobacteria was particularly dominant in the feces of breast-feeding infants compared with that of infant formula fed infants.

In 1928, Dr. Michel Polonowski and Albert Lespagnol of France established an analysis method for specifying unknown carbohydrate analysis and in 1930, they firstly isolated and identified HMO 2'-Fucosyllactose and 3-Fucosyllactose from unknow fraction of mother milk by applying 2D chromatography (2-Demensional Chromatography).

The full-scale study of the human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) was in the 1950s, when a pediatrician, Gyorgy, and a chemist, Kuhn, collaborated. They found evidence that the infection-resistant ingredients in infants are N-acetylglucosamine (N-acetylglucosamine) and oligosaccharides containing polysaccharides, which are contained in breast milk contributing to the growth of bifidobacterial etc, finally known as human milk oligosaccharide.

They also carried out studies on the correlation between human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) and immunity/brain simultaneously. In 1954, various oligosaccharides were structurally identified in breast milk and until 1980s, there have been various studies on the growth of intestinal microorganisms and obstruction of intestinal epithelial cell adhesion of pathogenic bacteria and anti-inflammation by human milk boligosaccharide. ¹

In 2000s, a number of functional studies have shown that human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) is selectively utilized by intestinal bifidobacteria as a prebiotics and structurally similar to those of Glycan to prevent intestinal attachment of pathogens, which explains nutritional and biochemical benefits of human milk oligosaccharide.

In 2016, Abbott Nutrient in the United States, famous of its Similac products, launched human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) 2’-FL contained infant formula and in 2017, Nestle has also released human milk oligosaccharide-containing products and exported to many countries.

Since research started in early 1900s and after more than 100 years of long research, we were finally able to mass-produce complex-structured milk oligosaccharide and it is being applied first to powdered milk products for babies who must intake human milk oligosaccharide.

If you can take breast milk for a lifetime, you can enjoy nutrients from it forever but adults can't so far. But prebiotics products based on the core ingredient of breast milk, HMO, have recently been launched overseas, allowing adults to have essential nutrients of breast milk as much as they want.

Historical Aspects of Human Milk Oligosaccharides1–4 American Society for Nutrition. Adv. Nutr. 3: 430S–439S, 2012;

Research history with the pioneers of the 20th century breast milk oligosaccharide

Type and content of human milk oligosaccharide (HMO)

The amount and composition of human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) of each mother varies from individual to individual, but human milk oligosaccharide is the third largest component of the solids in the milk, following lactose, fat with approximately 5 to 15 grams in a liter of milk. Compared to other animal breast milk, mother’s milk contains at least 100 times more oligosaccharide than milk and there are many differences in its kind. In other words, human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) is a key ingredient that differs from other animal milk.

The basic nutritional average composition of human, cow, goat and sheep milk

Composition(g/L)	People	Cow	Goat	Sheep
Protein	12	32	34	62
Kazane	4	26	24	42
Albumin, globulin	7	6	6	10
Fat	40	36	38	79
Lactose	69	47	41	49
ash	3	7	8	9
Oligosaccharide	8	0.03 - 0.06	0.25 - 0.30	0.02 - 0.04

* Source of data : Milk oligosaccharides: A review. vol 68 International Journal of Dairy Technology

Among human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), fucosylated oligosaccharides are present in breast milk at an unusually high concentration, while not in animal milk, and the most abundant composition is the 2'-O-fucosyllactose (2'-FL).

Concentration of major human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) in breast milk

HMOCategory (Total %)	Oligosaccharide	mean concentration (range), g/L
Fucosyllactose(35~50%)	2'-O-Fucosyllactose(2'-FL)	2.7 (1.88~4.9)
	3'-Fucosyllactose(3'-FL)	0.5 (0.25~0.86)
	Lacto-N-fucopentaose(LNFP) Ⅰ	0.122 (0.106~0.145)
	Lacto-N-fucopentaose(LNFP) Ⅱ+Ⅲ	0.156 (0.120~0.161)
Sialylation(12~14%)	3'-Sialyllactose(3'-SL)	0.2 (0.1~0.3)
Sialylation(12~14%)	6'-Sialyllactose(6'-SL)	0.5 (0.2~1.22)
Non-pucosylated neutral(42~55%)	Lacto-N-Neotetraose(LNnT)	0.3 (0.17~0.45)

* Source of data : Human Milk Oligosaccharides Influence Neonatal Mucosal and Systemic Immunity Ann Nutr Metab 2016;69(suppl 2):42–51

- The most common ingredient in human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) is 2'-FL.

It is known that human milk oligosaccharide varies in its main composition depending on the lactation period. It was also found that about 20 percent of mothers around the world had low levels of human milk oligosaccharide by maternal heredity and even some mothers can't release any HMOs containing fucose with genetic reason. Scholars say this prevents the baby from intaking fucosylated human milk oligosaccharide and interferes with the formation of immune glycans made from the "fucose" component of fucosylated human milk oligosaccharide, which in turn adversely affects intestinal health and immunity.

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What's Human Milk Oligosaccharide?