The nutrient choline – proven to have long-term benefits for children whose mothers consume it during pregnancy – also helps the body more efficiently use omega 3 fatty acids needed for growth, a new study finds. fetal brain, cognitive and visual development.
The Research has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The findings suggest that choline supplementation supports cellular metabolism 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 take nutrients out of your liver and give it to your baby, so take choline and DHA supplements. [together]we are increasing the bioavailability of DHA,” said senior author Marie Caudill, professor of nutritional science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Kevin Klatt, Ph.D. ’18, a research scientist and nutritionist at the University of California, Berkeley, was 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 the infant’s response to stress, improves information processing, and has long-term benefits in sustained attention. (as shown in a study that followed children up to age 7), and in pregnant 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 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 significant determinant of the amount of dietary DHA that forms it into tissues during pregnancy.”
In foods, choline is found in egg yolks, lean red meat, fish, poultry, legumes, nuts, and cruciferous vegetables.
The source: Cornell University
