Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T06:54:44.911Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Digestion of the zinc in human milk, cow's milk and a commercial babyfood: some implications for human infant nutrition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Peter Blakeborough ,
Michael I. Gurr  and
Dallyn N. Salter
Peter Blakeborough
Affiliation:
Food Quality and Human Nutrition Department, Food Research Institute, Shinjield, Reading, Berks RG2 9AT
Michael I. Gurr
Affiliation:
Food Quality and Human Nutrition Department, Food Research Institute, Shinjield, Reading, Berks RG2 9AT
Dallyn N. Salter
Affiliation:
Pig Nutrition and Production Department, Animal and Grassland Research Institute Shinjield, Reading, Berks RG2 9AQ
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

1. The digestion of zinc present in human milk, cow's milk and a commercial babyfood was compared, using the piglet as a model for the human infant.

2. In piglets given human milk the pH of stomach contents was approximately 1 and 0.4 units lower than that of animals given respectively cow's milk and babyfood. The pH values of intestinal contents were approximately neutral and did not vary with the type of feed.

3. Hard casein curds were present throughout the stomachs and small intestines of animals fed on cow's milk or babyfood and between 55 and 70% Zn in these digesta samples were recovered in an insoluble form by centrifugation. In contrast, little solid material was observed in the digesta of animals fed on human milk, and 57 and 93% respectively of the Zn in digesta were recovered in a soluble form in the stomach and small intestine.

4. Soluble fractions prepared by centrifugation of digesta were analysed by filtration on Sephadex G-150. After any of the three feeds, soluble Zn in stomach contents was mainly in a low-molecular-weight form. In intestinal samples, however, Zn was present in low- and high-molecular-weight forms. Whilst there were similar amounts of Zn in the low-molecular-weight form in all samples, approximately three times as much of the total intestinal Zn was in a soluble high-molecular-weight form complexed to proteins in the animals fed on human milk compared with those fed on cow's milk or babyfood.

5. Analysis of protein-bound soluble Zn in intestinal samples on SDS-polyacrylamide gels resulted in a similar pattern of proteins for all feeds. Results indicated that at least some of these proteins were derived from intestinal secretions of the piglet.

6. Some implications of these results in respect of the mode of digestion of Zn and its biological availability to the human infant are discussed.

Type
Papers of direct relevance to Clinical and Human Nutrition
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , March 1986 , pp. 209 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1986

References

REFERENCES

Blakeborough, P., Salter, D. N. & Gurr, M. I. (1983). Biochemical Journal 209, 505–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braude, R. & Newport, M. J. (1973). British Journal of Nutrition 29, 447–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, R. M. & Hardy, R. N. (1971). Journal of Anatomy 108, 63–77.Google Scholar
Cousins, R. J., Smith, K. T., Failla, M. L. & Markowitz, L. A. (1978). Life Sciences 23, 1819–1826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckhert, C. D., Sloan, M. V., Duncan, J. R. & Hurley, L. S. (1977). Science 195, 789–790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. W. & Johnson, E. C. (1980 a). Journal of Nutrition 110, 1076–1080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. W. & Johnson, E. C. (1980 b). Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 165, 457–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. W. & Johnson, P. E. (1980 c). Pediatric Research 14, 876–880.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairbanks, G., Steck, T. L. & Wallach, D. F. H. (1971). Biochemistry 10, 2606–2616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fransson, G.-B., Thorén-Tolling, K., Jones, B., Hambraeus, L. & Lönnerdal, B. (1983). Nutrition Research 3, 373–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hambidge, K. M., Walravens, P. A., Casey, C. E., Brown, R. M. & Bender, C. (1979). Journal of Pediatrics 94, 607–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurley, L. S., Duncan, J. R., Sloan, M. V. & Eckhert, C. D. (1977). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 74, 3547–3549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurley, L. S., Lönnerdal, B. & Stanislowski, A. G. (1979). Lancet i, 677–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lönnerdal, B., Schneeman, B. O., Keen, C. L. & Hurley, L. S. (1980 a). Biological Trace Element Research 2, 149–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lönnerdal, B., Stanislowski, A. G. & Hurley, L. S. (1980 b). Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry 12, 71–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louis, C. F. & Shooter, E. M. (1972). Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 153, 641–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowry, O.H., Rosebrough, N. J., Farr, A. L. & Randall, R. J. (1951). Journal of Biological Chemistry 193, 265–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masson, P. L., Heremans, J. F., Schonne, E. & Crabbe, P. A. (1969). Protides of Biological Fluids Proceedings Colloquium 16, 633–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, H. W. (1972). Veterinary Pathology 9, 3–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkash, S. & Jenness, R. (1967). Journal of Dairy Science 50, 127–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ugel, A. R., Chrambach, A. & Rodbard, D. (1971). Analytical Biochemistry 43, 410–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar