Dietary Choline Intake and Choline Concentrations of Plasma and Breast Milk of Some Korean Lactating Women

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate choline concentration of plasma and breast milk of Korean lactating women and their relationship with dietary total choline intake. Overnight fasting blood and an aliquots of breast milk of 29 lactating women in 1 month of lactation in Daejeon metropolitan city were taken and measured for their free choline concentration in plasma and total choline concentration in breast milk by HPLC-MS and enzymatic method using choline oxidase, respectively. Dietary choline intake were calculated from their food records data for the one day meal and choline database of Korean food. Dietary choline intake of the subjects was 129.8±58.9 mg/d, plasma free choline concentration was 13.4±4.2 μmol/L and total choline of breast milk were 157.6±86.0 mg/L. Dietary choline intake of lactating women was not correlated to total choline concentration of breast milk(r=−0.091) and plasma free choline concentration(r=−0.067. Plasma free choline concentration was not significantly correlated with total choline(r=0.275), free choline (r=0.168), betaine-added total choline (r=0.275) and betaine-added free choline (r=0.169) concentration of breast milk of the subjects. These data show that choline concentration in breast milk seems to be independant to choline intake of lactating women and lactation period.