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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Human milk is the primary source of infant nutrition, although breastfeeding rates are declining today, and human milk is often replaced by animal milk-based infant formula. Infant formula is intended to replicate the composition of human milk, albeit significant differences remain in the physiological responses to breastfeeding and formula feeding in offspring. More research is needed on the composition of human milk and other milk types, especially regarding their lipid content. A comparative analysis of different milk samples was carried out in this study. The amount of omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, and endocannabinoids was measured in human, cattle, and goat milk as well as in goat milk- and cow milk-based infant formulas using chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Significant differences between the human and animal milks were observed in the case of omega-6 fatty acid and endocannabinoid content, with higher omega-6 fatty acid and lower endocannabinoid levels in human milk than in animal milk samples and infant formulas. Goat milk shares the highest similarity to human milk in terms of the analyzed lipid species. However, our results indicate that the levels of the examined bioactive lipid species in human milk failed to be replaced by goat milk- and cow milk-derived infant formulas.

Details

Title
Comparative Analysis of Omega-3, Omega-6, and Endocannabinoid Content of Human, Cattle, Goat, and Formula Milk
Author
Csatári-Kovács Renáta 1 ; Röszer Tamás 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Csősz Éva 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Proteomics Core Facility, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary, Metabolomics Research Group, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary, Doctoral School of Molecular Cell and Immune Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary 
 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary 
 Proteomics Core Facility, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary, Metabolomics Research Group, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary 
First page
1786
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
23048158
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3211965202
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.