Abstract
Assessment of milk production is of utmost relevance for pediatricians and scientists interested in early life nutrition. The weight-suckle-weight (WSW) method, which consists of weighing babies before and after they suckle their mother, uses the difference in body weight as an estimate of milk intake. However, this is prone to many sources of error. In the current study, we used for the first time the water turnover method and compartmental analysis with deuterated water (D2O) as a non-toxic tracer to quantify in vivo milk production in a rat model. We assessed the effect of a nutritional intervention presumed to affect milk production, a maternal dietary protein restriction during gestation and lactation, which results in the birth of pups with intrauterine growth restriction. The specific aim of this study was to determine milk production with the body water turnover method in rat dams receiving during gestation and lactation, either a control diet (NP) or an iso-caloric low-protein diet (LP). In NP dams, mass of dam’s total body water, output flow constant from dam to litter (K21) and median milk flow, calculated between days 11 to 14 after pup birth, were 282.1 g, 0.0122 h-1 and 3.30 g/h for NP dams, respectively. Maternal dietary protein restriction (-59%) during perinatal period led to a 34% reduction in milk flow (NP versus LP). With the WSW method, milk flow varied from 1.96 g/h to 2.37 g/h between days 11 to 14 for NP dams. The main advantage of the D20 method compared to the WSW method stems from its higher precision, as attested by the narrowest range of measured values of milk flow ([2.90; 3.75] and [0.98; 6.85] g/h, respectively) for NP group. This method could be suitable for testing the effectiveness of candidate galactologue molecules presumed to enhance milk production in the lactating rat model.
Highlights
The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life because breastfeeding has been shown to be associated with health benefits for the infant but for the mother as well [1]
Relative mass gain (RMG) showed a trend to be lower in low-protein diet (LP) compared to Normo Protein (NP) (p
At the end of the period (PND 18), no significant difference was shown between NP and LP RMG (3.54 and 3.13, respectively)
Summary
The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life because breastfeeding has been shown to be associated with health benefits for the infant but for the mother as well [1]. The main reasons of the early cessation of breastfeeding are (i) the early return of mothers to work but (ii) perceived insufficient lactation was the reason stated by 62% of mothers who stopped breastfeeding [3,4,5]. It would be of utmost interest to find innovative ways to enhance lactation in these mothers. For this purpose, candidate molecules have to be found and tested, as a first step, in animal models. It is crucial to be able to precisely quantitate the production of maternal milk in rodents, and its modulation by maternal supplementation with candidate molecules
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.