Altered breast milk components in preeclampsia; An in-vitro proton NMR spectroscopy study

To investigate the metabolic profile of milk on day 3 and at the 6th month of lactation in mothers with preeclampsia (PE) and normotensive mothers. Women with PE (n=29) and control women (n=31) were recruited for this study. Milk was collected on day 3 and at the 6th month of lactation. Proton NMR spectroscopy was used to identify 25 milk metabolites (alpha-lactose, beta-lactose, oligosaccharides, myo-inositol, alanine, glutamate, glutamine, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, valine, acetone, citrate, creatine, phosphocreatine, acetate, choline, lactate, lipid, phosphocholine and glycerophosphocholine). Principle component analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) were carried out to identify differences in milk metabolite composition between both the groups. The levels of milk metabolites varied between the control and PE groups. Alpha and beta-lactose, glycine, glycerophosphocholine (p