Gestational Age and Origin of Human Milk Influence Total Lipid and Fatty Acid Contents

Abstract

The human milk composition may be influenced by several factors, such as gestational age or genetic characteristics and dietary habits of different populations. To analyze the total lipid and fatty acid contents of human milk, we have conducted two studies, one on mothers who had delivered preterm and term newborns and another on mothers from two different sociocultural backgrounds (Spain and Panama). The total lipid content (g/100 g wet weight) was significantly higher in term (2.76 ± 0.66; mean ± SD) than in preterm mature milk (1.06 ± 0.4). The relative amount of 18:1n-9 was significantly higher in preterm than in term milk for transitional and mature milk, whereas that for the colostrum followed the opposite trend. Concerning the comparison between milk from mothers born in different countries, the relative contents of each of the fatty acids 16:0, 16:1n-7, 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, and 22:5n-3 were higher in Panamanian than in Spanish milk, whereas the mean percentages of saturated fatty acids <14:0, of 16:1n-9, and of 18:1n-9 were higher in Spanish than in Panamanian milk. Statistically significant differences were found during the three periods of lactation considered for almost all the fatty acids mentioned above, especially for 18:1n-9 and 18:3n-3. Although the potential biological significance of the changes in oleic acid content between preterm and term milk remains unclear, differences in fatty acid content between Spanish and Panamanian milk reflect the different composition of the diet among women from these countries.

Fatty acid and sn-2 fatty acid composition in human milk from Granada (Spain) and in infant formulas

“…Our result for MUFA in colostrum was in the middle of the European Range (ER 39.11 -45.19%;Fidler & Koletzko, 2000) and agree with the figures in other Spanish (Rueda et al, 1998;Pita et al, 1985) studies of 42.00 and 41.46%, respectively. We found similar MUFA percentages in a German study (Genzel-Boroviczeny et al, 1997), but the percentage of oleic acid was only 32.16%, whereas in our study oleic acid accounted for 38.83%.…”

“…Our results confirm the trend in two Spanish studies reported with an interval of 13 y (Rueda et al, 1998;Pita et al, 1985). The latter study showed a considerably lower linolenic acid content (0.41 vs 1.09%), accompanied by a remarkable increase of the LA=LnA ratio, from 19.1 (1985) to 27.5 (1998).…”

“…The LA mean value found in mature milk was, as occurred in colostrum, a little higher than the ER (6.9 -16.4; Koletzko et al, 1992). The percentage of LnA in colostrum was similar to the lowest figures on the ER (0.35 -1.09), and was similar to other Spanish (Rueda et al, 1998;Dominguez Ortega et al, 1997) and Italian studies, with figures of 0.45, 0.51 and 0.35, respectively. In mature milk, the percentage of LnA was similar to the lowest values in the ER (0.7 -1.3; Koletzko et al, 1992).…”

Modulação e composição de ácidos graxos do leite humano

“…O conteúdo total de lipídeos e a composição de ácidos graxos do leite humano são variáveis, como pode ser comprovado em diversos estudos 2,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Mandel et al 16 estimaram o conteúdo de gordura do leite humano pelo método do crematócrito, que consiste na mensuração das quantidades de creme e de soro após a centrifugação de capilares contendo uma alíquota de leite humano.…”

Fatty-acid composition of the colostrum and serum of fullterm and preterm delivering Iraqi mothers

“…The human milk composition may be influenced by several factors, such as gestational age, genetic characteristics, dietary habits, nutritional and socioeconomic state of mothers, duration of lactation and length of gestation (Rueda et al, 1998;Beijers & Schaafsma, 1996;Bunker et al, 1996;Yeh et al, 1996). Dietary (milk) lipids are very important for the normal growth and development of infants (Ambartsumyan, 1998;Giovannini et al, 1991).…”