Sex differences in the associations of human milk oligosaccharides with height and weight in breastfed Ugandan children
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background & Objective Human milk oligosaccharides ( HMOs) have been associated with several child growth metrics, but there was no difference in the associations according to child sex. Here, we present clinic-based cross-sectional data on the relationship between specific HMOs in the milk of Ugandan mothers and growth in their breastfed children as a group and as males and females separately. Method Human milk samples were manually collected from 127 lactating mothers. Levels of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Children’s weight and length were measured using a portable digital scale and length board, respectively. Weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and weight for height (WHZ) Z scores were calculated. The relationships between HMOs and untransformed weights and heights and between WAZ, HAZ and WHZ subcategories were analyzed for all children and for males and females separately by Spearman’s correlation and Kruskal‒Wallis and Mann‒Whitney U tests. Results There were positive and negative correlations between the concentrations of specific HMOs and the heights and weights of children according to mothers’ secretor status. Tall infant stature was associated with higher concentrations of 6’SL, LSTc, DFLNH, DSLNH, LNnT and total HMOs in secretor or nonsecretor mothers; short infant stature was associated with higher concentrations of 3FL and DFLac; overweight was associated with higher concentrations of 6’SL, LSTc and LNnT in secretor and nonsecretor mothers; and normal weight was associated with higher concentrations of 3’FL. The associations between maternal HMO levels and childrens heights and weights or between the LAZ, WAZ and WHZ subcategories significantly differed between male and female children. Conclusions There are sex differences in the associations between high concentrations of some HMOs and stature and weight in Ugandan children born to secretor and nonsecretor mothers. Highlights This study showed that some HMOs are associated with child growth metrics in a sex-specific pattern. Four HMOs (3FL, DSLNT, DFLac, and 3’SL) were positively correlated with the height/length of the children. There were significant positive correlations between height/length and 3FL and DSLNT in only female children and between height/length and DFLac in only male children. DSLNT, DFLac and LSTb were positively correlated with weight in female and male children respectively. Plain Language Summary Human milk oligosaccharides ( HMOs) have been associated with growth parameters of children in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Only two such studies have been conducted in Africa. None of the studies investigated the relationship between child sex and HMO composition and growth interactions. We examined the relationship between 19 well-characterized HMOs and growth metrics and also dissected the data by infant sex. Our results show a positive correlation between some HMOs and growth indices in either female or male children only. This highlights the impact of sex differences in the relationship between specific HMOs and growth measures in children. This evidence, if validated, could inform future nutritional interventions involving combinations of HMOs as food supplements that are equally effective for both male and female children.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".