Feeding Buttermilk-Derived Choline Forms During Gestation and Lactation Modulates Ex Vivo T-Cell Response in Rat Dams

Buttermilk contains a mixture of choline forms; it is high in phosphatidylcholine (PC) and sphingomyelin (SM), which could have an impact on immune system development and function.

We aimed to determine the effect of feeding buttermilk-derived choline forms during pregnancy and lactation on maternal immune function.

Sprague Dawley dams (n = 8 per diet) were randomly assigned midway through pregnancy (10 d of gestation) to 1 of 3 experimental diets, containing 1.7 g/kg choline: control [100% free choline (FC)]; buttermilk [37% PC, 34% SM, 17% glycerophosphocholine (GPC), 7% FC, 5% phosphocholine]; or placebo (50% PC, 25% FC, 25% GPC). Dams consumed the same diet until the end of the lactation period (21 d after parturition). Cell phenotypes and cytokine production by mitogen-stimulated splenocytes were measured and compared using 1-factor ANOVA test in order to asses the effect of diet on immune fuction of lactating dams (main outcome).

After ConA stimulation, splenocytes from dams in the buttermilk group produced more IL-2 (30%), TNF-α (30%), and IFN-γ (42%) compared with both the placebo and control diets. Placebo-fed dams had a higher proportion of CD8+ cells expressing CD152+ (22%) in spleen, and splenocytes from dams that were fed the buttermilk and the placebo diets produced about 50% and 53% more IL-10 after LPS and OVA stimulation, respectively, compared with the control group.

Feeding buttermilk-derived choline forms during pregnancy and lactation had a beneficial impact on the immune system of Sprague Dawley rat dams, especially on T-cell function.