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Article History

Received: 22 July 2025

Revised: 27 August 2025

Accepted: 29 August 2025

First Online: 26 September 2025

Declarations

:

: Not applicable.

: Not applicable.

: Sibel Goeraler, John Gonsalves, Marko Mank, and Bernd Stahl are employees of Danone Global R&I, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Ali H. Abikhodr, Stephan Warnke, Ahmed Ben Faleh, and Thomas Rizzo are employees of Isospec Analytics SA, Renens, Switzerland.

: Defined HMOs fraction have been isolated from anonymized pooled human milk samples as described in the “Methods” section and elsewhere (Mank, M., P. Welsch, A. J. R. Heck and B. Stahl (2019). “Label-free targeted LC-ESI-MS(2) analysis of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOS) and related human milk groups with enhanced structural selectivity.” Anal Bioanal Chem 411(1): 231–250).The usage and analysis of defined HMO fractions were performed in accordance with ethical standards and guidelines as laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval and written consents of donors were given as stated in the publications by Thurl et al. (see Thurl S, Henker J, Siegel M, Tovar K, Sawatzki G. Detection of four human milk groups with respect to Lewis blood group dependent oligosaccharides. Glycoconjugate J. 1997;14(7):795–9.; Thurl S, Munzert M, Henker J, BoehmG,Muller-Werner B, Jelinek J, et al. Variation of human milk oligosaccharides in relation to milk groups and lactational periods. Br J Nutr. 2010;104(9):1261–71. .; Thurl S, Henker J, Taut H, Tovar K, Sawatzki G. Variations of neutral oligosaccharides and lactose in human milk during the feeding. Z Ernahrungswiss . 1993;32(4):262–9).The same samples were already subjected to HMO analysis in these prior studies. They were now used for the same purpose for which ethical approval was received as already stated in the former publications by Thurl et al. (see Thurl S, Munzert M, Henker J, BoehmG,Muller-Werner B, Jelinek J, et al. Variation of human milk oligosaccharides in relation to milk groups and lactational periods. Br J Nutr. 2010;104(9):1261–71. .; Thurl S, Henker J, Taut H, Tovar K, Sawatzki G. Variations of neutral oligosaccharides and lactose in human milk during the feeding. Z Ernahrungswiss . 1993;32(4):262–9).