Abstract
Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been associated with a reduced content of n−3 long-chain PUFA (LC-PUFA) in breast milk, thereby reducing the intake of key nutrients by the infants. We postulated that the mammary gland is affected by maternal smoking in the process of n−3 LC-PUFA secretion into milk. This prompted us to investigate the effects of cigarette smoke on the synthesis of n−3 LC-PUFA in vitro by using a line of healthy epithelial cells from the human mammary gland, MCF-10A. Cells were exposed to cigarette smoke under controlled conditions by adding to the medium aliquots of horse serum containing smoke components, as analyzed by GC-MS. The major findings concern the inhibition of both the conversion of the precursor 14C-ALA (α-linolenic acid) to n−3 LC-PUFA and of the Δ5 desaturation step (assessed by HPLC analysis with radiodetection of n−3 FAME) following exposure to minimal doses of smoke-enriched serum, and the dose-dependent relationship of these effects. The data indicate that exposure to cigarette smoke negatively affects the synthesis of n−3 LC-PUFA from the precursor in mammary gland cells.
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Abbreviations
- ALA:
-
α-linolenic acid
- HS:
-
horse serum
- LA:
-
linoleic acid
- LC-PUFA:
-
long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids
- PL:
-
phospholipids
- SE-HS:
-
smoke-exposed horse serum
- TG:
-
triglycerides
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Marangoni, F., Colombo, C., De Angelis, L. et al. Cigarette smoke negatively and dose-dependently affects the biosynthetic pathway of the n−3 polyunsaturated fatty acid series in human mammary epithelial cells. Lipids 39, 633–637 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-004-1276-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-004-1276-5