Fig. 2: Early biosignatures in human milk (HM) metabolome for children with the risk of future neurodevelopmental delay (NDD) compared with typically developing (TD) children.

a Metabolites and their chemical classes detected in the HM samples in this study. b The comparison of HM metabolome coverage between previously reported milk metabolites and the metabolites detected in this study. c The HM metabolomic profiles differed substantially according to offspring sex (n = 29 for male TD and 30 for female TD infants). d Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) based on the HM metabolome data separates female infants with the future NDD risk (n = 12) from female TD children (n = 30). e The top 25 differential metabolites in the HM between the female risk and female TD groups in the PLS-DA model ranked by variable importance in projection (VIP) scores. f The metabolic pathways altered in the HM metabolome for female children in the risk group compared to those in the TD group. Increase (upper arrows) and decrease (down arrows) in the risk group. g PLS-DA reveals dramatically different metabolic phenotypes in the HM for male children between the risk (n = 11) and TD (n = 29) groups. h The top 25 differential metabolites in the HM for male infants between the risk and TD groups in the PLS-DA model ranked by VIP scores. i Pathway impact analysis of altered biochemical pathways in HM for male children with higher risk of future NDD. Upper arrows: increase in the risk group. Down arrows: decrease in the risk group.