Influence of duration of gestation on fatty acid profiles of human milk

Abstract

Human milk (HM) provides healthy full-term infants with all their nutritional requirements during the first 6 months of life. Fatty acids (FA) and cholesterol derived from HM have many physiological functions in the neonate, including brain myelination, brain function and visual development. HM samples from mothers delivering prematurely (n ¼ 15) and at term (n ¼ 30) were collected. For pre-term mothers, longitudinal HM samples were collected up to 14 weeks post-partum. Thirty-six individual FA were identified and quantified in human milks by fast GC-FID analysis. HM from pre-term mothers had higher contents of saturated FA and long chain-polyunsaturated FA compared to HM from term mothers. The cholesterol content of full-term HM was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of preterm HM up to 5 weeks post-partum. A decrease in the levels of mono-unsaturated FA, poly-unsaturated FA and cholesterol was observed in longitudinal pre-term HM samples. The current study demonstrates how the FA and cholesterol composition of full-term and pre-term HM varies with gestational age and throughout lactation.Practical applications: The current study demonstrates how the FA and cholesterol composition of full-term and pre-term milks varies with gestational age and throughout lactation. The changes were presumably due to the differences in functional maturity of the mammary gland and/or dietary fat and carbohydrates intakes by Irish mothers. This thorough knowledge of lipid profile of human milk could be useful to design a more humanised infant formula in order to ensure the required FA and cholesterol levels of infants are satisfied during early life, particularly in supporting the growth and development of premature babies.

Long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids decline rapidly in milk from mothers delivering extremely preterm indicating the need for supplementation

“…The SFAs lauric acid and myristic acid were found at higher proportions in milk from mothers with shorter pregnancies, whereas the two main MUFAs linoleic acid and cis ‐vaccenic acid followed an opposite pattern. These observations were in line with other reports that showed an association between preterm delivery and increased levels of short‐chain SFAs and MCSFAs together with reduced levels of MUFAs . Short‐chain SFAs and MCSFAs are easily absorbed by the digestive system and readily accessible as an energy source.…”

“…Therefore, in instances when infants receive donors’ milk, there is a risk that the intake of several fatty acids that are important for normal development is considerably lower than when the mother′s milk is the sole dietary source. Overall, the fatty acid profiles of breast milk from mothers delivering extremely preterm reported here agree with previously published data on similar cohorts, demonstrating that low milk LCFUFA levels are a widespread concern .…”

“…Short‐chain SFAs and MCSFAs are easily absorbed by the digestive system and readily accessible as an energy source. Thus, these classes of fatty acids have been suggested to be of particularly high importance for very preterm infants with immature gastrointestinal tracts . However, considering the rather small differences between full‐term and preterm milk, the physiological relevance of these findings is likely to be negligible.…”

“…Consequently, the highest docosahexaenoic acid content in human milk is found in coastal populations, where the intake of fish and other marine products rich in docosahexaenoic acid is high , and lowest in societies with modern Western diets . Several studies have also found that pregnancy duration impacts milk fatty acid composition . One of the main findings of these studies is that LCPUFA levels, including docosahexaenoic acid, are significantly elevated in preterm milk compared to milk from mothers delivering at full term .…”

Value-addition of Beef Meat By-products: Lipid Characterization by Chromatographic Techniques

“…Kyoto. Japan , equipped with a flame ionization detector FID and an AOC-20i autosampler, according to the method reported by Guerra et al 18 . A Rxi-5ms fused silica capillary column 10 m 0.10 mm i.d.…”