Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the possibility of Bifidobacterium breve transfer from the mother to her infant during the perinatal period.
Materials and methods: Hundred isolates of B breve and 80 isolates of Bifidobacterium longum were collected from paired fecal samples of mothers and their infants. Bacterial DNA from the samples was comparatively analyzed by random amplification of polymorphic DNA. The growth of the bacteria was examined in vitro.
Results: The analysis of diversity in B breve population showed that infant-derived isolates had significantly less diversity than mother-derived isolates. The analysis of the similarity between these samples revealed that the number of shared type isolates tended to be higher in infants than in their mothers. In the isolates of B longum, however, no such difference was found in the diversity between mother- and infant-derived isolates. Examination of the growth of B breve strains revealed that the shared type strains have a significantly higher growth than nonshared strains both in the presence of galactooligosaccharides and at a higher redox potential.
Conclusions: These results suggested that subpopulations of B breve strains in the mothers may be transferred to their infants. Such populations may become dominant in the gut of infants at an early time after birth, during which time the transmission of the bifidobacteria of environmental origin is not yet established. B breve strain possessing a higher growth advantage in these conditions may be advantageous for colonization in the infant gut.