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Absolute quantification of human milk caseins and the whey/casein ratio during the first year of lactation
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Absolute quantification of human milk caseins and the whey/casein ratio during the first year of lactation

Y. Liao, D. Weber, W. Xu, B.P. Durbin-Johnson, B.S. Phinney and B. Lönnerdal
Journal of Proteome Research, Vol.16(11), pp.4113-4121
2017
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Abstract

Whey proteins and caseins in breast milk provide bioactivities and also have different amino acid composition. Accurate determination of these two major protein classes provides a better understanding of human milk composition and function, and further aids in developing improved infant formulas based on bovine whey proteins and caseins. In this study, we implemented a LC-MS/MS quantitative analysis based on iBAQ label-free quantitation, to estimate absolute concentrations of α-casein, β-casein, and κ-casein in human milk samples (n = 88) collected between day 1 and day 360 postpartum. Total protein concentration ranged from 2.03 to 17.52 with a mean of 9.37 ± 3.65 g/L. Casein subunits ranged from 0.04 to 1.68 g/L (α-), 0.04 to 4.42 g/L (β-), and 0.10 to 1.72 g/L (α-), with β-casein having the highest average concentration among the three subunits. Calculated whey/casein ratio ranged from 45:55 to 97:3. Linear regression analyses show significant decreases in total protein, β-casein, κ-casein, total casein, and a significant increase of whey/casein ratio during the course of lactation. Our study presents a novel and accurate quantitative analysis of human milk casein content, demonstrating a lower casein content than earlier believed, which has implications for improved infants formulas.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
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Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.85 Food Science & Technology
3.85.784 Dairy Product Chemistry
Web Of Science research areas
Biochemical Research Methods
ESI research areas
Biology & Biochemistry
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