Skip to main content
. 2022 Aug 26;3(9):100712. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100712

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Association of mother’s own milk (MOM) intake, fortifier type, and other factors with gut microbiome composition in VLBW infants

(A) Microbiome variance is explained by various factors, modeled individually by EnvFit using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity. Fortifier type, BHMF versus H2MF; MOM group, high versus low intake; F2IsoP, F2-isoprostane levels; antibiotics, percentage of days on antibiotics until a particular study time point. FDR-adjusted p values are denoted by ∼p < 0.1, ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01.

(B) PCoA depicting beta diversity between MOM groups (low-MOM versus high-MOM infants, see Figure S8 for details) over time, modeled from PERMANOVA (99,999 permutations) using the fortifier type and MOM group in a multivariable analysis. See Table S1A for betadisper test results (permutation test for homogeneity of multivariate dispersions).

(C) Heatmap illustrating correlations between bacterial genera relative abundances (CLR transformed) and other continuous covariates at each time point (T1–T4). Dendrogram clustering was based on pairwise distances obtained from Spearman correlations, independently for each time point (horizontal axis). Correlations represented were not significant (p > 0.05, FDR corrected). Clusters 1 and 2 on the vertical axis depict the clustering of genera based on their correlations with covariates. MOM groups were determined based on % MOM volumes that represent the proportion of MOM used to prepare the feeds prior to fortification. T1, study day 0 (before fortification: BHMF, n = 14; H2MF, n = 16; low MOM, n = 10; high MOM, n = 20); T2, study day 7 (during fortification: BHMF, n = 14; H2MF, n = 16; low MOM, n = 8; high MOM, n = 22); T3, week 33 AGA (end of fortification: BHMF, n = 14; H2MF, n = 16; low MOM, n = 13; high MOM, n = 17); and T4, week 35 AGA (follow-up after fortification: BHMF, n = 14; H2MF, n = 16; low MOM, n = 14; high MOM, n = 16). BHMF, bovine-derived human milk fortifier; H2MF, human-derived human milk fortifier; PCoA, principal coordinate analysis; VLBW, very low birth weight; F2IsoP, F2-isoprostanes; AGA, adjusted gestational age; antibiotics, percentage of days on antibiotics until a specific study time point; TEV, total enteral volume. The prefix “Uncl_” indicates an unclassified genus of the named bacterial family or order.