engleski

Sphingoid base and gangliosides in infant formulas

Sphingolipids are a group of lipids present in all eukaryotic cells. They consist of a long-chain sphingoid base as the backbone. The prevalent long-chain bases of most mammals are D-erythro-sphinganine and sphingosine. Gangliosides comprise a group of glycosphingolipids that contain one or more sialic acid moieties. They are one of the components of human milk that have been demonstrated to play important roles in neuronal development, neuropathologic processes, and receptor functions with respect to protein hormones, interferon, fibronection and bacterial toxins. The aim of our research was to establish if there are the diferences in sphingoid bases concentrations between human milk and infant formulas. The second aspect of the research was to ascertain whether there was any difference in the concentrations of gangliosides between human milk and infant formulas. Sphingolipids were extracted from human milk and infant formulas. Free and total sphingoid bases were obtained by base and acid hydrolysis respectively. Sphingosine and sphinganine were derivatized with the OPA (O-Phtaldialdehyde) reagent and analysed by high performance liquid chromatography. After sphingolipid extraction, gangliosides were quantitatively determined in supernatant with a colorimetric resorcinol-hydrochloric acid method. The results of this research indicate the significant differences between the concentrations of sphingoid bases and gangliosides in infant formulas and human milk. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that despite all efforts made to produce infant formulas as similar to human milk as possible, in terms of their structure and the amount of their constituents, there are differences that could be biologically significant and thus need to be further researched.

sphingosine ; sphinganine ; gangliosides ; infant formulas

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