Abstract
Breast milk was analysed in 9 under-nourished Nigerian mothers and 23 well-nourished mothers who served as controls. Milk from the under-nourished mothers contained adequate amounts of lactose and total triglycerides, but had significantly lower bile salt-stimulated lipase activity (BSSL); their mean BSSL activity was only about 50% of the activity in milk from the control group. Total milk protein was also significantly lower than for the controls (1.45 vs. 1.09 g/dl, respectively;P<0.01). Our findings may have nutritional implications for breast-fed infants of under-nourished nursing mothers.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- BSSL:
-
bile salt-stimulated lipase
References
Alemi B, Hamosh M, Scanlan JW, Salzman-Mann C, Hammash P (1981) Fat digestion in very low-birth-weight infants: effect of addition of human milk to low birth weight formula. Pediatrics 68: 484–489
Gopalan C (1958) Studies on lactation in poor indian communities. J Trop Pediatr 4:87–97
Hamosh M (1981) Physiological role of milk lipases. In: Lebenthal E (ed) Textbook of Gastro-enterology and Nutrition in Infancy. Raven Press, New York, pp 473–482
Hernell O, Gebre-Medhin M, Olivecrona O (1977) Breast milk composition in Ethiopian and Swedish mothers IV: milk lipases. Am J Clin Nutr 30:508–511
Hibberd CM, Brooke OG, Cater ND, Haug M, Harzer G (1982) Variation in the composition of breast milk during the first 5 weeks of lactation. Implications for the feeding of preterm infants. Arch Dis Child 57:658–662
Jelliffe DB (1966) In: The assessment of the nutritional status of a community. W.H.O., Geneva, pp 10–96
Lonnerdal B, Forsum E, Gebre-Medhin M, Hambraeus L (1976) Breast milk composition in Ethiopian and Swedish mothers. II: lactose, nitrogen and protein contents. Am J Clin Nutr 29:1134–1141
Lowry OH, Rosebrough NJ, Farr AL, Randall RJ (1951) Protein measurement with the folin-phenol reagent. J Biol Chem 193: 265–275
Olivecrona T, Bengtsson G (1977) Lipases in milk. In: Borgstrom B, Brockman HL (eds) Lipases. Elsevier, New York, pp 206–261
Park JI, Johnson MJ (1949) A submicro-determination of glucose. J Biol Chem 181:149–151
Roberts IM (1985) Hydrolysis of 4-methylumbelliferyl butyrate: a convenient and sensitive assay for lipase activity. Lipids 20:243–247
Roberts IM, Montgomery RK, Carey MC (1984) Rat lingual lipase: partial purification, hydrolytic properties and comparison with pancreatic lipase. Am J Physiol 247:6385–6393
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gindler, J., Nwankwo, M.U., Omene, J.A. et al. Breast milk composition and bile salt-stimulated lipase in well-nourished and under-nourished Nigerian mothers. Eur J Pediatr 146, 184–186 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02343230
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02343230