to more efficiently process and release the omega 3 fatty acid, DHA, from the pregnant woman’s liver. Once released into the bloodstream, DHA can be incorporated into all tissues, including the placenta.
“During pregnancy, you have to get nutrients out of your liver and give it to your baby, so take choline and DHA supplements. [together]we are enhancing the bioavailability of DHA,” said Marie Caudill, professor of nutritional sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Kevin Klatt, Ph.D. ’18, a research scientist Research and nutritionist at the University of California, Berkeley, said. , is the first author of the paper.
These types of nutrition-nutrient interactions are not new, says Caudill. For example, there are known synergies in the gut, where vitamin D enhances calcium absorption and vitamin C helps provide extra iron.
Caudill and others at Cornell have also shown that high maternal choline intake reduces an infant’s response to stress, improves information processing, and has long-term benefits in maintaining attention attention (as shown in one study that followed children up to 7 years of age) and in pregnant women. In women, choline reduces a risk factor for preeclampsia.
In this study, a group of 30 women at 12 to 16 weeks of gestation were randomly divided into two groups: One group was given 500 mg of choline per day, plus 50 mg of deuterium-labeled choline, so it could be tracked through the body. The other group served as a control and were given 25 milligrams per day of labeled choline only.
All participants were also supplemented with 200 mg of DHA daily, a prenatal vitamin and mineral supplement, and could eat according to their normal diets. Blood and urine were collected after fasting at the start of the experiment, then during gestational weeks 20-24 and weeks 28-30. Mother’s blood and umbilical cord blood were also collected at birth.
By monitoring labeled choline, the researchers identified a chemical reaction in which choline produces small molecules called methyl groups that are added to a molecule called phosphatidylethanolamine.
Through a biological pathway, phosphatidylethanolamine is converted to a novel choline-containing molecule, phosphatidylcholine, which is enriched with DHA.
In this form,
DHA is moved out of the liver and into the mother’s bloodstream, where it is available for use in tissues.
Future studies will help determine if choline’s ability to enhance DHA bioavailability contributes to some of the benefits found when pregnant women take choline supplements.
“Our results suggest that choline supplementation may help achieve higher DHA status with lower DHA doses during pregnancy,” said Klatt. “Our data point to choline intake as another important determinant of the amount of dietary DHA that forms it into tissues during pregnancy.”
Co-authors include researchers from Baylor College of Medicine; University of California, Berkeley; Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; OmegaQuant Analysis in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; University of British Columbia in Vancouver; Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca; and the University of Texas, Austin.
Research funded by Balchem Corporation; Cornell Biotechnology Institute’s Center for Advanced Technology through the New York State Division of Science, Technology and Innovation; and the United States Department of Agriculture.
Funding sources play no role in study design, data interpretation, or results publication.
Source: Eurekalert
