New Data on Content and Distribution of Gangliosides in Human Milk

Abstract

The content and distribution of gangliosides, and total lipid content, were studied in human milk samples from different periods of lactation. We found a significant correlation (r = 0.5564; p = 0.0165) between ganglioside and total lipid contents. There was a selective change in the relative concentrations of GD3 and GM3 during lactation. The most abundant ganglioside in samples from the first three weeks of lactation was GD3, whereas after the first month, GM3 was the major ganglioside. In addition to GD3 and GM3, previously known to be present in human milk, we detected several previously unreported highly polar gangliosides.

Comparison of Content and Distribution of Human Milk Gangliosides from Spanish and Panamanian Mothers

“…These re sults agree with those published until now, because the content of gangliosides in human milk from Swedish mothers [6] was different from that reported for Japanese [8] and for Spanish mothers [9], However, the distribu tion of individual gangliosides, at least of the two main (Gm3 and GD.0, was similar in these studies mentioned [6,8,9],…”

“…In Spanish as well as in Panamanian milk the relative content of G 1 (Gm3) increased, and the rela tive content of G3 (Gd3) decreased as lacta tion progressed. This selective change of the proportions of Gm3 and Gd3 is characteristic of human milk and has been described before by other authors [8] and by us [9],…”

“…Different ganglioside species were designated G1-G8. according to their mobility (from higher to lower) on HPTLC, as previously described [9] (fig. 1) Values represent the percentage of each individual ganglioside with respect to the total content of LBSA in human milk.…”

Variation in Ganglioside Content of Bovine Dairy Products

“…The ganglioside composition of milk fat from mammalian species can di!er markedly (Plantz and Patton, 1973;Laegreid et al, 1986;Puente et al, 1996), and the ganglioside content of a given milk can change during lactation (Takamizawa et al, 1986a;Puente et al, 1994Puente et al, , 1995Rueda et al, 1995;Pan and Izumi, 1999). Unique gangliosides have been found in buttermilk (Huang, 1973;Takamizawa et al, 1986b;Ren et al, 1992), suggesting cultured dairy products may show other variations.…”

Interaction of early diet and the development of the immune system

“…A high concentration of the disialoganglioside (GD)GD 3 has been detected in developing tissues (Ando, 1983), as well as in human colostrum, and this latter fact may reflect a biological role in the development of organs such as the intestine in the neonate. Human milk also contains significant amounts of highly polar gangliosides (Rueda et al 1995). It has been suggested that complex gangliosides in developing tissues act as mediators of specific types of cell-contact interactions during the early stages of mammalian development (Friedman et al 1983).…”