Characterizing the extent human milk folate is buffered against maternal malnutrition and infection in drought‐stricken northern Kenya

ABSTRACT: Abstract

Objectives

Folate is an essential nutrient fundamental to human growth and development. Human milk maintains high folate content across the maternal folate status range, suggesting buffering of milk folate with prioritized delivery to milk at the expense of maternal depletion. We investigated whether and how the extent of this buffering may diminish under prolonged nutritional and/or disease stress, while taking into consideration infants' varying vulnerability to malnutrition‐related morbidity/mortality.

Methods

A cross‐sectional study analyzed milk specimens from northern Kenyan mothers (n = 203), surveyed during a historic drought and ensuing food shortage. Multiple regression models for folate receptor‐α (FOLR1) in milk were constructed. Predictors included m

SUBMITTER: Fujita M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9805107 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature