Abstract
Human breast milk lipids have major beneficial effects: they promote infant early brain development, growth and health. To identify the relationship between human breast milk lipids and infant neurodevelopment, multivariate analyses that combined lipidomics and psychological Bayley-III scales evaluation were utilized. We identified that 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid has a significantly positive correlation with infant adaptive behavioral development, which is a crucial neurodevelopment to manage risk from environmental stress. To further clarify the biological function of 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid in regulating neurodevelopment, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) was used as a model to investigate the effect of 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid on neurobehavioral development. Supplementation with 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid from the L1 to L4 stage in larvae affected locomotive behaviors and foraging ability that were not socially interactive, implying that 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid is involved in regulating the serotonergic neuronal ability. We found that supplementary 0.1 μM 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid accelerated the locomotive ability and foraging ability via increasing the expression of serotonin transporter mod-1. Antioxidant defense genes, sod-1, sod-3 and cyp-35A2 are involved in 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid-induced motor neuronal activity. Nevertheless, supplementary 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid at concentrations above 1 μM significantly attenuated locomotive behaviors, foraging ability, serotonin synthesis, serotonin-related gene expressions and stress-related gene expression, resulting in the decreased longevity of worms in the experiment. In conclusion, our study demonstrates the biological function of 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid in governing adaptive behavioral development.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests a global strategy for infant and young child feeding, and that breastfeeding is helpful to improve infant neurodevelopment, growth and health
We further evaluated whether nematodes that were supplemented with 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid from the L1 to L4 stage displayed altered lifespans
Despite many studies that have indicated that human breast milk lipids have positive effects on infant neurodevelopment, growth and health, our study is the first to define the mechanism of human breast milk lipid, 9,12-octadecadiynoic acid, in modulating neurodevelopment
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests a global strategy for infant and young child feeding, and that breastfeeding is helpful to improve infant neurodevelopment, growth and health. Human breast milk lipids are mainly composed of triglycerides, which are esters derived from three fatty acids and glycerol. In a small population, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) constitute only 0.8% to 26% of triglycerides in human breast milk; they are considered some of the most important lipids required for infant short-term and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes [2]. We are continuously learning more about the role of lipids, especially PUFAs in infant neurodevelopment, lipids represent a large group of macronutrients constituting a majority of components that remain largely unstudied and poorly understood. We identified a correlation between human breast milk lipid composition and infant neurodevelopment. Lipids were further isolated from human breast milk and analyzed for their components. Infants’ and children’s neurodevelopmental assessment scores were measured according to Bayley-III scales
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