Changes in Human Milk Fatty Acid Composition during Lactation: The Ulm SPATZ Health Study
by
Linda P. Siziba 1
, Leonie Lorenz 2, Bernd Stahl 3,4, Marko Mank 3, Tamas Marosvölgyi 5, Tamas Decsi 5, Dietrich Rothenbacher 2 and Jon Genuneit 1,2,*
Linda P. Siziba 1, Leonie Lorenz 2, Bernd Stahl 3,4, Marko Mank 3, Tamas Marosvölgyi 5, Tamas Decsi 5, Dietrich Rothenbacher 2 and Jon Genuneit 1,2,*
1
Pediatric Epidemiology, Department of Pediatrics, University Medicine Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
2
Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, 89075 Ulm, Germany
3
Danone Nutricia Research, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands
4
Department of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, 3584 Utrecht, The Netherlands
5
Department of Paediatrics, Medical School, University of Pécs, 7623 Pécs, Hungary
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2019, 11(12), 2842; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11122842
Received: 10 October 2019 / Revised: 13 November 2019 / Accepted: 14 November 2019 / Published: 20 November 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human Milk, HMO, Lactation and Application in Infant Feeding)
The lipid fraction of human milk provides the infant with the fatty acids that are necessary for optimal growth and development. The aim of this study was to investigate the fatty acid composition of human milk at three time points during lactation and its change over time using appropriate statistical methods. Human milk samples from breastfeeding mothers at 6 weeks (n = 706), 6 months (n = 483), and 12 months (n = 81 with all three time points) were analyzed. Centered log-ratio (clr) transformation was applied to the fatty acid data. Principal component analysis (PCA) and generalized linear model-based repeated measure analysis were used to assess changes over time. The total lipid content was significantly higher at 6 months (β = 0.199, p < 0.029) and 12 months of lactation (β = 0.421, p < 0.001). The constituents of C20:3n-6 and C20:3n-3 were lower at 6 months (p < 0.001). Four distinct sub-compositional fatty acid groups were only identified at 12 months of lactation. The inclusion of small fatty acids of small constituent size in the analysis resulted in a shift in the balance between fatty acid constituents. Human milk fatty acid composition during prolonged lactation is different from that of human milk during a short duration of lactation. Our findings support the hypothesis that a combination of multiple fatty acids is important in fatty acid profiling beyond the presentation of individual fatty acids. Furthermore, the high variability of small fatty acids warrants attention because a compositional analysis may show more pronounced changes.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
human milk; fatty acids; lactation; composition
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
- Supplementary File 1:
ZIP-Document (ZIP, 772 KB)
MDPI and ACS Style
Siziba, L.P.; Lorenz, L.; Stahl, B.; Mank, M.; Marosvölgyi, T.; Decsi, T.; Rothenbacher, D.; Genuneit, J. Changes in Human Milk Fatty Acid Composition during Lactation: The Ulm SPATZ Health Study. Nutrients 2019, 11, 2842.
Show more citation formats
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
