Changes in Production of Ethanol, Acids and H₂ from Glucose by the Fecal Flora of a 16- to 158-d-Old Breast-Fed Infant

Manuscript received 11 March 1997. Initial reviews completed 25 April 1997. Revision accepted 26 September 1997.

Meyer J. Wolin^*, , Susan Yerry^*, Terry L. Miller^*, Yongchao Zhang, and Shelton Bank

^* Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research, New York State Department of Health, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12201-0509 and  Department of Chemistry, State University of New York-Albany, Albany, NY 12222

Microbes in the adult human colon ferment dietary substrates chiefly to acetic, propionic and butyric acids and CO₂, H₂ and CH₄. How this fermentation evolves after microbial colonization of the neonate is unknown. We examined the fermentation of glucose by fecal suspensions of a breast-fed infant from d 16 to 158 and found that the fermentation changed with age. Acetate, ethanol, succinate, lactate, formate and H₂ were formed up to 117 d of age. Production of succinate, lactate, formate and H₂ ceased after 117 d and acetate production increased. Butyrate and propionate were minor products up to 117 d. Afterwards, there was a slight increase in propionate production with no change in butyrate formation. Acetate was always the major product of glucose fermentation by the fecal suspensions. Approximately the same amounts of ethanol were formed throughout the study period. The fermentations were similar to fermentations of Escherichia coli and streptococci through 117 d. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis of the acetate formed from 1-¹³C- and 3-¹³C-glucose showed that the dominant fermentation pathway used by the colonic microbes switched from the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway at 16 d of age to the Bifidobacterium pathway at 158 d of age. An increase in the contribution of the Bifidobacterium fermentation to the overall colonic fermentation after 117 d would account for the increase in the formation of acetate from glucose. Chemical and NMR analyses of products of fecal fermentations from two other breast-fed infants <1 mo old were similar to those of the infant examined between 16 and 158 d.

The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 1 January 1998, pp. 85-90
Copyright ©1998 by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences

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