Fructooligosaccharides:FromBreastMilk ComponentstoPotentialSupplements. ASystematicReview

Abstract

Breast milk is the optimal food choice for infant growth and development. Among breast milk components, fructooligosaccharides (FOSs) are being actively studied because of their role in microbiota development. In particular, 2 -fucosyllactose is being proposed as a potential supplement/nutraceuticalorcomponentofinfantformula.Inthissystematicreview,wecriticallysummarizetheavailableinformationonFOSsand wediscusstheirfutureuseininfantnutrition.Wesearchedthemainelectronicdatabases(PubMed,Embase,andScopus),withafinalcheckinMay 2021.SearchtermswereinsertedindividuallyandusingtheBooleantoolsANDandOR.Relevantarticleswereidentifiedusingthefollowingwords: (“fructooligosaccharides”OR “FOS”) AND (“human milk”OR “breast milk”OR “donor milk”OR “bank milk”). The search retrieved 1814 articles. After removalofduplicates,wescreened1591articlesbasedontitle,abstract,andexclusiveuseoftheEnglishlanguage.Weincludedarticlesdescribing theconcentrationofFOSsinhumanmilkandassessedtherelevantones.Weexcludedreviews,studiesonanimals,andstudiesexclusivelycarriedout onadults.Also,weexcludedstudiesthathavenotreportedevidenceeitheronFOSsorongalactooligosaccharidesfromhumanmilk.Theresulting publicationswerereviewed,and10studieswereincludedinthesystematicreview.WeconcludethathumanmilkFOSsare,indeed,crucialtoinfant gutdevelopmentandtheiradditiontoinfantformulaissafe,well-tolerated,andmightprovideimmunebenefitstonewborns.However,wewould like to underscore the scantiness of human data and the need to avoid the immediate translation of infant research to the commercialization of supplementsmarketedtoadults