2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Research on human milk catechins

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	18K02499
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 09030:Childhood and nursery/pre-school education-related
Research Institution	Tokyo University of Agriculture
Principal Investigator	HOMMA Kazuhiro 東京農業大学, 応用生物科学部, 教授 (00190273)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	若菜宣明東京農業大学, 応用生物科学部, 准教授 (30508221) 田中越郎東京農業大学, 応用生物科学部, 教授 (80211366) 白井智美東京農業大学, 応用生物科学部, 助教 (60803848) 福山直人東京農業大学, 応用生物科学部, 教授 (50349338)
Project Period (FY)	2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
Keywords	人乳 / ポリフェノール / カテキン / 茶
Outline of Final Research Achievements	As Japanese people often intake green tea, Japanese breast milk is considered to contain green tea catechins. In this study, we qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed catechins contained in Japanese breast milk. Five catechins could be detected in breast milk. Catechin and epicatechin without galloyl group were detected most. Catechins without galloyl group is reported to exist as a conjugate in blood, but they were exist as a free form in breast milk. Catechins without galloyl groups may be deconjugated in mammary gland cells when they are transferred from blood to breast milk and may possibly be secreted from mammary gland cells as free form. Catechins without galloyl group positively correlated with components secreted from mammary gland cells and negatively correlated with components passing through the mammary gland cell gap, seemed to be a corroboration that catechins without galloyl group in breast milk were secreted from mammary gland cells.
Free Research Field	栄養学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	母乳中のポリフェノール組成を解析し、それらが乳児の健全な発育にどのように影響するかを検討することである。日本人は日常の水分摂取として緑茶を摂取する傾向があり、この緑茶中に含まれているポリフェノールが母乳中に移行している可能性が考えられる。ポリフェノールの作用には、細胞へのウイルス感染の阻止など有用な効果がある。しかし、授乳婦の食事環境や乳児の健全な発育と母乳中のポリフェノール組成の関係性を検討した報告は見られない。母乳中のポリフェノール組成を解析することは母乳栄養を促進するだけでなく学術的独自性が高く、さらに既存の調製粉乳の組成にポリフェノールを追加するなど創造性がとても高い研究と考える。