THE ROLE OF SIALIC ACID IN INFANT NUTRITION AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$402,750.00
Summary
Sub-optimal nutrition during critical periods of brain growth has persistent effects on the human brain. Premature infants are especially vulnerable because brain growth reaches its peak at 26 weeks gestation and remains high throughout the first year of life. Those fed human milk in the first month after birth have been shown to have a significant intellectual advantage compared with infants fed standard infant formulas. While the n-3 fatty acids such as DHA are thought to be important, other c ....Sub-optimal nutrition during critical periods of brain growth has persistent effects on the human brain. Premature infants are especially vulnerable because brain growth reaches its peak at 26 weeks gestation and remains high throughout the first year of life. Those fed human milk in the first month after birth have been shown to have a significant intellectual advantage compared with infants fed standard infant formulas. While the n-3 fatty acids such as DHA are thought to be important, other components of human milk may be of greater significance for brain growth. Our interest is in a sugar compound called sialic acid. It occurs in remarkably large amounts in human milk (up to 1g-L) but is present in only small quantities in infant formulas. Sialic acid is an important structural and functional component of brain cells. It is directly involved in nerve cell transmission, memory formation and cell-to-cell communication. During peak brain growth, young infants, especially pre-term ones, are unlikely to be able to synthesise sufficient sialic acid to meet their needs. At these times, they rely on human milk and infant formulas to supply the necessary building blocks. If their diet is a poor source of sialic acid, however, there may be lasting consequences for intellectual development. This research project addresses several questions. 1. Does oral sialic acid supplementation over the first few weeks of life increase both brain sialic acid levels as well as learning behaviour? 2. Is there any dose-response relationship - is more better? 3. Does supplementation influence the expression of genes encoding key enzymes in the brain? 4. Does dietary supplementation affect the activity of the liver enzyme involved in synthesis of sialic acid? If our findings can be extrapolated to human infants, they will have implications for the etiology of all types of cognitive and behavioural defects in children, including learning difficulties and attention deficit disorder.Read moreRead less
MATERNAL UNDERNUTRITION, INFANT REFEEDING, ADIPOSITY AND DIABETES
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$297,323.00
Summary
Malnutrition is a major health problem throughout the world and one of the priority areas for the WHO. Refeeding program guidelines have been established and implemented when children are assessed as being malnourished. Recent studies on the effect of these important programs throughout the world have suggested they may not have been as successful as wished. Indeed, even though many of the subjects are the urban poor, it has been found that many are developing diabetes in their twenties. This is ....Malnutrition is a major health problem throughout the world and one of the priority areas for the WHO. Refeeding program guidelines have been established and implemented when children are assessed as being malnourished. Recent studies on the effect of these important programs throughout the world have suggested they may not have been as successful as wished. Indeed, even though many of the subjects are the urban poor, it has been found that many are developing diabetes in their twenties. This is associated with an increase in abdominal fatness, out of proportion to the rest of the body's size and shape. The increase in diabetes in this group is most worrying and a major public health problem. It is not known whether the diabetes and abdominal fatness are caused by the refeeding programs or whether they are due to the fact that the body's metabolism was programmed during pregnancy. Perhaps the infants were malnourished whilst they were developing during pregnancy and metabolism was changed so they could store fat easily and not use glucose as readily in the rest of the body. This study is designed to show whether there are metabolic changes which predispose to diabetes and fatness present at birth in those who are malnourished or whether the refeeeding program designed to help them grow is the cause of these later problems.Read moreRead less