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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Pediatr Res. 2014 Feb 12;75(5):675–679. doi: 10.1038/pr.2014.24

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Sites of human milk glycan activity. The primary site for HMOS activity is the lumen of the gut, as the preponderance of HMOS are not digested or absorbed. However, those HMOS that are absorbed are excreted into the urine, and there they could inhibit uropathogenic organisms. The mechanisms whereby orally ingested HMOS affect sites distant from the gut are unknown, but can be speculated to be a direct affect of HMOS in the bloodstream, modulation of the global mucosal immune system through a primary affect on intestinal mucosal immune status, or mediated through secondary metabolites of HMOS fermentation in the gut that traverse the bloodstream.