Dietary effects on plasma glycerophospholipids: results from a randomized controlled infant feeding trial

OBJECTIVES: Human milk provides a complex mix of animal lipids, whereas the fat supply of most modern infant formula is based on vegetable oils. We studied the effects of breastfeeding and of feeding infant formula either without or with dairy goat lipids on the composition of infant plasma glycerophospholipids. METHODS: Healthy term infants were randomized double blind to feeding with infant formula based on whole goats' milk (GIF, approximately 60% milk fat and 40% vegetable oils) or a control cows' milk infant formula based on vegetable oils (VIF) from 2 weeks after birth. A reference group of fully breastfed infants was also followed. At the age of 4 months, blood samples were collected and plasma glycerophospholipids were analysed with liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The group of breastfed infants showed significantly higher contents of glycerophospholipid species containing sn-2 palmitic acid {PC(16:0/16:0) and PC(18:0/16:0)} and significantly higher contents of glycerophospholipid species containing LC-PUFA than infants in both formula groups. The GIF group demonstrated significantly higher glycerophospholipid species containing myristic acid {LPC(14:0), PC(14:0/18:1), PC(16:0/14:0)} and palmitoleic acid {LPC(16:1), PC(16:0/16:1), PC(16:1/18:1)} than the VIF group. CONCLUSION: We conclude that breastfeeding induces marked differences in infant plasma glycerophospholipid profiles as compared to formula feeding, whereas the studied different sources of formula-fat resulted in limited effects on plasma glycerophospholipids.

Uhl, Olaf; Hellmuth, Christian; Demmelmair, Hans; Zhou, Shao J.; Makrides, Maria; Prosser, Colin; Lowry, Dianne; Gibson, Robert A.; Koletzko, Berthold