Feeding a Mixture of Choline Forms during Lactation Improves Offspring Growth and Maternal Lymphocyte Response to Ex Vivo Immune Challenges.

Erin Lewis,Caroline Richard,Jonathan Curtis,Susan Goruk,René Jacobs,Emily Wadge,Catherine Field

doi:10.3390/nu9070713

Erin Lewis, Caroline Richard + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9070713

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Abstract

Study objectives were to examine the impact of feeding a mixture of choline forms, or a diet high in glycerophosphocholine (GPC) on maternal immune function and offspring growth during lactation. Lactating Sprague-Dawley rat dams (n = 6/diet) were randomized to one of three diets, providing 1 g/kg total choline: Control (100% free choline (FC)), Mixed Choline (MC; 50% phosphatidylcholine (PC), 25% FC, 25% GPC), or High GPC (HGPC; 75% GPC, 12.5% PC, 12.5% FC). At 3 weeks, cell phenotypes and cytokine production with Concanavalin A (ConA)-or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated splenocytes and mesenteric lymphocytes were measured. Feeding MC or HGPC diets improved pups’ growth compared to Control (+22% body weight, p < 0.05). In spleen, MC-and HGPC-fed dams had higher proportions of cytotoxic (CD8+) T cells expressing CD27, CD71 and CD127, total B cells (CD45RA+) and dendritic cells (OX6+OX62+), and produced less IL-6 and IFN-γ after ConA than Control-fed dams (p < 0.05). MC and HGPC LPS-stimulated splenocytes produced less IL-1β and IL-6 than Control. ConA-stimulated mesenteric lymphocytes from MC and HGPC dams produced more IL-2 and IFN-γ than Control (p < 0.05). In summary, feeding a mixture of choline forms during lactation improved offspring growth and resulted in a more efficient maternal immune response following mitogenic immune challenge.

Highlights

Choline is an essential micronutrient required in the maternal diet during lactation to ensure adequate choline concentrations in breast milk, support offspring growth [1,2] and maintain maternal immune function [1] and intestinal health [3]
In human populations [5,6], including women during lactation [4], dietary choline is consumed as a variety of forms, primarily as lipid-soluble phosphatidylcholine (PC) (46%), and water-soluble free choline (23%) and glycerophosphocholine (GPC) (19%)
We have previously demonstrated that providing choline in the maternal diet during the lactation period as PC, instead of free choline, alters immune function in both lactating dams and offspring [11]

Summary

Introduction

Choline is an essential micronutrient required in the maternal diet during lactation to ensure adequate choline concentrations in breast milk, support offspring growth [1,2] and maintain maternal immune function [1] and intestinal health [3]. To enable breast milk to meet the demand by the infant to support developing tissues, maternal dietary choline requirements increase, from 425 mg/day for non-pregnant, non-lactating women to 550 mg/day for lactating women. We have previously demonstrated that an exogenous source of choline is essential in the maternal diet during lactation for optimal immune function of the mother [1] and the development of the immune system in their offspring [2].

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