Human milk micro- and macronutrients have been rigorously characterized. Yet, low-molecular weight metabolites in human milk that may be used as diagnostic biomarkers have received little attention, partly because high abundant sugars interfere with the accurate measurement of low abundant bioactive molecules in mass spectrometry-based methods. This project aims to take a novel approach in measuring the human milk metabolome in a manner that is high-throughput, precise, and comprehensive. Human milk samples were collected from healthy women and prepared for analysis by GC-TOF MS/MS, reverse phase LC-TOF-MS, and hydrophilic interaction LC-TOF-MS using multiple sample preparations. Our methods have shown high repeatability with coefficients of variance below 10%, while also having the ability to analyze nearly 200 known metabolites. The ability to accurately analyze the bioactive metabolites in human milk will allow crossover applications in bovine and other mammalian milk, giving the possibility to quickly and accurately diagnose the health and wellness of the specimen of study by non-invasive means.

Mass Spectrometry-based metabolomics: An application for human milk

247th National Meeting (2014)

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