Human milk oligosaccharides combine with Bifidobacterium longum to form the “golden shield” of the infant intestine: metabolic strategies, health effects, and mechanisms of action

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are the third most important nutrient in human milk and are the gold standard for infant nutrition. Due to the lack of an enzyme system capable of utilizing HMOs in the infant intestine, HMOs cannot be directly utilized. Instead, they function as natural prebiotics, participating in the establishment of the intestinal microbiota as a "bifidus factor." A crucial colonizer of the early intestine is