Preterm mothers' milk contains less antioxidants than mothers completing their gestation
2011-02-18
(Press-News.org) A study conducted at the University of Granada and at the University Hospital San Cecilio revealed that preterm mothers' milk contains low concentrations of coenzyme Q10. This is a complex of great medical importance, due both to its antioxidant capacity and to its role as a component of the electron transport chain, among other functions.
This study counted with the participation of a group of researchers of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "José Mataix" (from to the Andalusian Government research groups AGR-145 and CTS-627), and with the collaboration of the Department of Pediatrics of the University Hospital San Cecilio of Granada, Spain.
The main objective of this study was to analyze the presence of coenzyme Q10 in breast milk and to examine variation in Q10 concentrations in the three stages of breast milk (colostrum, transitional and mature milk). The second goal was to determine whether the milk of mothers at term and that of preterm mothers have different Q10 concentrations.
30 Breastfeeding Mothers
To carry out this study, researchers selected 30 nursing mothers, 15 of which had completed their gestation and 15 were preterm mothers. Three milk samples were taken from each mother: colostrum, transitional and mature milk. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their eating habits, which was processed later with software developed by the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "José Mataix", of the University of Granada. The milk samples were examined to measure -among other parameters- concentrations of coenzyme Q, tocopherol (isomers a, g and d) and the total antioxidant capacity of breast milk.
The study revealed colostrum CoQ10 concentrations of about 0.4 µmol/l in preterm mothers and 0.7 µmol/l in term mothers. This means that CoQ10 concentrations in mothers at term are 75% higher than in preterm mothers. Similar results were obtained regarding tocopherol.
Perfect Food
Scientists stress that while breast milk is the perfect food for all newborns, as it provides the nutrients needed for proper development and growth, "in some cases, breastfeeding is not possible and infants are fed with artificial nutrition. Artificial nutrition is intended to be as similar as possible to human breast milk, or at least, to have the same functional effects as breast milk. This requires a deeper understanding of the composition of human breast milk". This is what makes the results obtained of this research so relevant.
Antioxidants
And, although some antioxidants as tocopherol, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, etc. are known, "there are components with antioxidant activity which concentration and presence in breast milk is completely unknown. Coenzyme Q10 –which is an antioxidant of great importance- belongs to this group".
The researchers believe that their study will make an important contribution to the area of infant nutrition. "Having a deep understanding of the factors and components of human milk is paramount, as it can help in getting a better infant milk formula. This way, although a newborn can not benefit from breast milk, at least it will be given the opportunity to artificially benefit from the advantages of human milk" –the authors state.
INFORMATION:
The authors of this study are Julio José Ochoa Herrera, José Luis Quiles Morales, María Del Carmen Ramírez Tortosa, Guillermo Rodríguez Navarrete, Magdalena López Frías and the deceased Francisco José Mataix Verdú (of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "José Mataix"), and Eduardo Carbona and José Maldonado Lozano (of the University Hospital San Cecilio of Granada, Spain).
References:
Coenzyme Q10 concentration and total antioxidant capacity of human milk at different stages of lactation in mothers of preterm and full-term infants. Quiles JL, Ochoa JJ, Ramírez-Tortosa MC, Linde J, Bompadre S, Maurizio B, Narbona E, Maldonado J, Mataix J. Free Radical Research, 40(2), 196-206, 2006.
Contact: Julio José Ochoa Herrera. Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "José Mataix"). Department of Physiology of the University of Granada. Phone Number: +34 958 241 000. Ext. 20317. E-mail: jjoh@ugr.es
Accessible on English version
Accesible en Versión española
Accessible sur le site Version française
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-02-18
Children with chronic health conditions are 88% more likely to suffer physical abuse than healthy children, according to research in the March issue of Acta Paediatrica. They are also 154% more likely to suffer a combination of physical abuse and exposure to intimate partner violence than their healthy school friends.
Researchers from Karlstad University, Sweden, analysed 2,510 questionnaires completed anonymously by children aged ten, 12 and 15 from 44 schools. Nearly one in four had at least one chronic health condition, including visual, hearing or speech problems, ...
2011-02-18
The team of Professor Burkhard Luy from KIT and Junior Professor Stefan F. Kirsch from the TUM has now shown for the first time that certain NMR parameters, the so-called residual dipolar couplings (RDCs), can make a significant contribution towards determining the constitution of chemical compounds when traditional methods fail. To do this they embedded molecules of the compound in a gel which slightly constricts their mobility. By stretching the gel, the molecules can be aligned along a preferred orientation. While residual dipolar couplings average out in solution, they ...
2011-02-18
Depending on the level of smoking and leisure time exercise, vitamin E supplementation may decrease or increase, or may have no effect, on the risk of pneumonia, according to a study published in Clinical Epidemiology.
In laboratory studies, vitamin E has influenced the immune system. In several animal studies vitamin E protected against viral and bacterial infections. However, the importance of vitamin E on human infections is not known.
Dr. Harri Hemila and Professor Jaakko Kaprio, of the University of Helsinki, Finland, studied the effect of vitamin E on the risk ...
2011-02-18
CHICAGO—Afraid of becoming disabled in old age, not being able to dress yourself or walk up and down the stairs? Staying physically active before symptoms set in could help. But so could going out to eat, playing bingo and taking overnight trips.
According to research conducted at Rush University Medical Center, higher levels of social activity are associated with a decreased risk of becoming disabled. The study has just been posted online and will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
"Social activity has long been recognized ...
2011-02-18
Feb. 17, 2011– A new treatment approach which uses tiny bursts of electricity to reawaken paralyzed muscles "significantly" reduced disability and improved grasping in people with incomplete spinal cord injuries, beyond the effects of standard therapy, newly published research shows.
In a study published online in the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Toronto researchers report that functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy worked better than conventional occupational therapy alone to increase patients' ability to pick up and hold objects.
FES therapy ...
2011-02-18
WASHINGTON – Lifestyle changes—such as getting more exercise, time in nature, or helping others—can be as effective as drugs or counseling to treat an array of mental illnesses, according to a new paper published by the American Psychological Association.
Multiple mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety, can be treated with certain lifestyle changes as successfully as diseases such as diabetes and obesity, according to Roger Walsh, M.D., PhD. of the University of California, Irvine's College of Medicine. Walsh reviewed research on the effects of what ...
2011-02-18
VIDEO:
Although, in the majority of cases, the localized presence of Neisseria meningitidis in the throat has no consequence, it can sometimes lead to meningitis or septicaemia. The seriousness of these...
Click here for more information.
Although, in the majority of cases, the localized presence of Neisseria meningitidis in the throat has no consequence, it can sometimes lead to meningitis or septicaemia. The seriousness of these two infections is driving researchers from ...
2011-02-18
Young children living in urban public housing spend more time playing outdoors than other urban children, according to researchers at Rice University, Columbia University and Princeton University.
Contrary to the expectations of the researchers, who hypothesized that children living in poorer circumstances would be playing outside less, the study found that 5-year-olds living in public housing played outside 13 percent more per day, on average, than did other urban 5-year-olds. Children living in places of high physical disorder -- areas with visible graffiti, trash, ...
2011-02-18
The research could eventually lead to new approaches for controlling sleeping sickness in humans and wasting diseases in livestock which are caused by trypanosomes carried by the bloodsucking tsetse fly.
Biologists believe that sexual reproduction evolved very early and is now ubiquitous in organisms with complex cell structure (the eukaryotes, essentially all living organisms except bacteria). However, real evidence is lacking for a large section of the evolutionary tree.
Trypanosomes represent an early and very distant branch of the eukaryote tree of life and ...
2011-02-18
Scientists at The Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine report the discovery of protein markers that could provide physicians with the first reliable blood test to predict ectopic pregnancies. Their findings are presented in the February 16 issue of the Journal of Proteome Research, currently available online. In a related small-scale study of clinical samples, published recently in the journal Fertility and Sterility, the researchers found that one of the proteins—ADAM12—showed a nearly 97 percent correlation with ectopic pregnancy.
Ectopic ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Preterm mothers' milk contains less antioxidants than mothers completing their gestation
