The fatty acid in breast milk is essential to activate the newborn’s heart

The fatty acid from breast milk is essential for the neonate’s heart to carry the energy it needs to function properly and ensure survival after birth. Birth.

This has been verified in research carried out on mice by a multidisciplinary team led by researchers from the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research, and the results of the work are published today in the journal Nature.

It is fatty acid “omega-6 g-linolenic” (GLA) that is provided to the baby through breast milk (or artificial milk or “formula”) and when it is detected by the organism, the necessary mechanisms are put into operation to ensure the energy contributions that the heart needs and start the heartbeat in the extrauterine environment.

The CNIC has explained in a press release released today that the fatty acid “omega-6 g-linolenic” present in breast milk is responsible for binding to the cellular protein called “Retinoid X receptor” (RXR).

This protein acts as a nutritional sensor for lipids and vitamin A derivatives, altering gene expression and influencing important biological functions such as immunity, cell differentiation or metabolism.

When this protein detects this maternal fatty acid, it launches genetic programs that equip the mitochondria, considered “the powerhouse of cells”with the necessary proteins to begin to consume lipids, the main source of energy in the mature heart.

Wide therapeutic implications

The results could have vast therapeutic implications in cardiovascular pathologies where there are mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunctions, as well as diseases related to alterations in maturational processes after birth, specified Dr. Mercedes Ricote, head of the Nuclear Receptor Signaling Group at the CNIC and who has led the investigation.

The researchers found in mice that both the absence of RXR in the heart, and the lack of the omega-6 fatty acid GLA in breast milk, prevent mitochondria from producing energy properly, which leads to severe heart failure that ends up causing failure. death 24-48 hours after birth.

At birth, the baby’s heart must begin to rapidly produce energy to initiate the heartbeat in the extrauterine environment.

The research, whose main author is Dr. Ana Paredes, proposes a very novel angle to understand the postnatal adaptations that are triggered so that the organism meets the requirements in the extrauterine environment and activates the necessary mechanisms when the sustenance of the maternal physiology.

Natural milk or “formula” milk

The researchers specified to EFE that milk “formula” (the artificial ones) also contains the necessary precursors to give the neonate the “GLA” it needs to start its cardiac system after birth, and they stressed that this has been a basic science project that has been carried out with models animals and cell phones and the implications in humans with studies that have a clinical orientation are yet to be known.

Paredes and Ricote explained that previous studies had already linked the concentration of “GLA” in breast milk with lower neonatal growth, although the mechanism of action and the physiological relevance of this fatty acid were unknown until now.

The researchers stressed the importance of proper nutrition for mothers to maintain adequate levels of “GLA” in subsequent lactation and that it belongs to the “omega-6” essential fatty acids that must be ingested on a regular basis.

“For this reason, having a balanced and healthy diet not only during pregnancy, but also during lactation, would be the first preventive method to take into account; and formula milk has the GLA precursor, which would be an alternative method to a possible state of maternal malnutrition”they clarified.

And they advanced that efforts are now being focused on studying whether, in addition to the heart, there are other tissues or organs where the Maternal “GLA” has a relevant role after birth, since lactation is a process that affects the entire organism “and it would make sense that this mechanism that we have described would have a physiological impact on other tissues that need to mature quickly to adapt to the environment.” extrauterine”.

Several national and international laboratories have participated in the research, including the National Biotechnology Center and the Margarita Salas Biological Research Center, both of the Higher Council for Scientific Research, the Complutense University of Madrid; the University of Barcelona (UB); the Institute of Functional Biology and Genomics of the University of Salamanca, or the Karolinska Institute (Sweden).

The study has received aid through grants from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (MICIN), from Fundación La Marató de TV3 and from the Community of Madrid.

Source: EFE