Carotenoids and Vitamin A in Breastmilk of Hong Kong Lactating Mothers and Their Relationships with Maternal Diet

Abstract

Carotenoids and vitamin A are nutrients crucial to infants’ development. To date, there is limited data on their availability in breastmilk and the associated dietary factors, especially in Hong Kong, where people follow a westernized Chinese diet. This study determined the selected breastmilk’s carotenoid and vitamin A (retinol) contents by ultraperformance liquid chromatography with photodiode detection (UPLC-PDA) and the dietary intakes by three-day food records in 87 Hong Kong lactating mothers, who were grouped into tertiles based on their daily carotenoid intake. Low vitamin A intake (530.2 ± 34.2 µg RAE/day) and breastmilk retinol level (1013.4 ± 36.8 nmol/L) were reported in our participants, suggesting a poor vitamin A status of the lactating participants having relatively higher socioeconomic status in Hong Kong. Mothers in the highest tertile (T3) had higher breastmilk carotenoid levels than those in the lowest (T1) (p < 0.05). There were significant associations between maternal carotenoid intakes and breastmilk lutein levels in the linear regression models (p < 0.05) regardless of dietary supplement intake. Furthermore, maternal dark green vegetable intakes were associated with breastmilk retinol, lutein, and β-carotene levels. These findings can serve as dietary references for lactating mothers to enhance breastmilk carotenoid and vitamin A contents for the benefits of child growth and development.

Carotenoids in maternal and cord blood, breast milk and their association with maternal dietary intake: a longitudinal study in Shanghai, China

“…Consumption of lutein and zeaxanthin and breast milk levels were not shown to be significantly correlated in recent research on Chinese lactating women (24) . Another Brazilian study (57) found no correlations between pro-vitamin A intake and levels of β -carotene in breast milk. Some intervention studies clearly show an increase in carotenoid concentrations in breast milk following the consumption of foods high in carotenoids (e.g., carrots or tomato paste, chlorella) or dietary supplements (58,59,60) .…”

Carotenoides

“…Si bien los carotenoides juegan varios papeles en la salud humana, es innegable que la función más importante de estos compuestos es la producción de vitamina A (Amengual et al, 2019). Por ejemplo, la luteína y la zeaxantina podrían proteger el pigmento retiniano, el epitelio del daño oxidativo y la retinopatía de los bebés, el licopeno se asocia con una tasa reducida de restricción del crecimiento fetal y síndrome de dificultad respiratoria, y el β-caroteno podría prevenir complicaciones del embarazo (preeclampsia, parto prematuro y parto de bebés prematuros) (Lu et al, 2022). El desarrollo y la diferenciación celular, la embriogénesis, la reproducción, la integridad de las células epiteliales y la función inmunológica están todos regulados por la vitamina A (Han et al, 2022).…”

“…Las frutas amarillas y anaranjadas son fuentes ricas en carotenoides provitamina A (De Assis et al, 2020). Entre ellos, el α-caroteno, el β-caroteno y la β-criptoxantina se pueden convertir en vitamina A en el cuerpo y, por lo tanto, se denominan carotenoides provitamina A (Figura 48) (Lu et al, 2022). Su capacidad para convertirse en vitamina A, es decir, su actividad provitamina A, es intrínsecamente diferente porque depende del número de anillos de β-ionona que poseen, es decir, 2 para β-caroteno y 1 para α-caroteno y β-criptoxantina (Borel et al, 2021).…”