Factors affecting human colostrum fatty acid profile: A case study

Abstract

The role of maternal colostrum to infant development has been extensively studied and presented. Among the main factors which contribute to breast milk composition are maternal diet, age and body mass index, parity, duration of pregnancy and stage of lactation. This study aims to investigate the potential impact of several factors including demographic (i.e. maternal age and nationality) on the colostrum fatty acid profile. Colostrum was collected the third day postpartum in a Greek maternity hospital. Certain lipid quality indices and fatty acid ratios were estimated and results were statistically processed. The main identified fatty acids were palmitic (C16:0), oleic (C18:1ω-9), and linoleic (C18:2ω-6) acids. Among fatty acids, saturated fatty acids predominated (47.61%), followed by monounsaturated fatty acids (39.26%), while polyunsaturated fatty acids had the lowest proportion (13.13%). Values of lipid quality indices were within the reported in the literature ranges. Maternal body mass index, nationality, age, mode of delivery, gender and fetal weight percentile were studied in respect to their potential influence on the fatty acid profile of colostrum fat. Results suggest that colostrum fatty acid profile was mainly dependent on maternal nationality and age rather than mode of delivery and maternal BMI. Regarding the effect of maternal nationality, significant differences were found for saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Of the most interesting findings is that colostrum fat from older (≥35 years) mothers had less saturated fat and more appropriate LQIs values. Finally, a reversed correlation was observed between the customized centile of the infants and the colostrum fat content.

Impacto da idade materna na acidez do colostro de nutrizes em maternidade do interior do Estado de São Paulo

“…Results from Mangel et al 38 and Sinanoglou et al 39 suggested the composition of human colostrum is not influenced by maternal BMI, so our data corroborate with these authors, as we have demonstrated that even in advanced maternal age presenting high BMI, this variable did not modify the casein and colostrum proteins content.…”

“…Resultados: A mediana da idade materna das nutrizes adolescentes foi de 20 (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) anos, e das nutrizes com idade materna avançada foi de 37 (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45) anos. A maioria das nutrizes adolescentes (66,3%) eram primíparas e a via de parto cesárea ocorreu em 66,7% das nutrizes em idade materna avançada.…”

Impact of maternal overweight and obesity on milk composition and infant growth

“…DGLA has been identified as a biomarker for obesity with maternal plasma levels during pregnancy associated with increased childhood BMI at 7 years (de Vries et al, ). Elevated adrenic acid, as seen in lipid factor 5, has been found in the colostrum of mothers with OW/OB and plays a protective role in infant brain development (Hadley, Ryan, Forsyth, Gautier, & Salem, ; Sinanoglou et al, ). Oleic acid and conjugated linoleic acid were lower in mothers with OW/OB in our study.…”

Maternal age influence in human colostrum fat composition

“…Mangel et al, 2017 34 a rm in their study that the composition of human colostrum fats is not in uenced by maternal BMI and also, for Sinanoglou et al, 2017 33 the composition of colostrum may not be in uenced by BMI. In the present study, we diverged from the above ndings as we found a difference between the BMI of adolescent mothers and advanced maternal age as well as in the colostrum of these mothers (p < 0.0001).…”

“…Among the main factors that contribute to the composition of colostrum and maternal milk are sociodemographic factors, ethnicity, diet, age, gestational variables such as body mass index, parity, duration of gestation, and stage of lactation. The study performed by Sinanoglou et al, 2017 33 evaluated the possible impact of socio-demographic variables on the composition of colostrum fatty acids and fats in Greek nursing mothers and showed that the fatty acid and colostrum fat pro le depended mainly on nationality and age, not on the type of delivery or maternal gestational BMI, and also found that the colostrum of mothers with advanced maternal age presented lower fat content. These ndings differ from those found in the present study as we demonstrated that these maternal variables were not signi cant to alter the colostrum composition of the study population and, also in divergence, the mothers over 35 years old presented a higher fat concentration in the colostrum.…”