Variations of neutral oligosaccharides and lactose in human milk during the feeding

There exist only few data concerning the variation of oligosaccharides in human milk. In this study the variations of neutral oligosaccharides and of lactose in human milk during the feeding were determined from five women at day 8 and at day 57 post partum. The milk of the investigated feedings was divided in four parts of equal volumes during sampling; the concentrations of neutral oligosaccharide fractions were determined by gel permeation chromatography on Fractogel TSK HW 40 (S) columns. No significant differences in the concentrations of the neutral oligosaccharide groups monofucosyllactoses, difucosyllactose, lacto-N-tetraoses, monofucosyllacto-N-tetraoses and difucosyllacto-N-tetraoses and of lactose were found in the four milk parts. The results of this study favor the use of so-called mid-feed samples, a simple and convenient sampling method for analytical studies of human milk. Mid-feed samples are representative of the whole feeding as concerned for neutral oligosaccharides.