Influence of Gestational Age, Secretor, and Lewis Blood Group Status on the Oligosaccharide Content of Human Milk.

Objectives: Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are considered to play an important role for the infant. As the biotechnical production of some HMOs is feasible today and clinical studies are being designed, the individual variation of the total amount of HMOs and of single components is of particular importance. Our objectives were to investigate whether differences exist between term and preterm milk, milk from mothers with secretor or nonsecretor status, and a Lewis blood group (a+b-), (a-b+), or (a-b-) pattern.