Veenstra Colin, Lenferink Anki, Petersen Wilma, Steenbergen Wiendelt, Bosschaart Nienke
Biomedical Photonic Imaging Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, Technical Medical Centre, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Biomed Opt Express. 2019 Jul 17;10(8):4059-4074. doi: 10.1364/BOE.10.004059. eCollection 2019 Aug 1.
With human milk being the most important source of infant nutrition, the protection and support of breastfeeding are essential from a global health perspective. Nevertheless, relatively few objective methods are available to investigate human milk composition and lactation physiology when a mother experiences breastfeeding problems. We argue that optics and photonics offer promising opportunities for this purpose. Any research activity within this new application field starts with a thorough understanding on how light interacts with human milk. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the full set of optical properties for human milk and the biological variability therein. Using a novel approach that combines spatially resolved diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (SR-DRS) and spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (sOCT) between 450 and 650 nm, we quantified the absorption coefficient , scattering coefficient , reduced scattering coefficient , anisotropy and backscattering coefficient of mature human milk from 14 participants released at different stages during a breastfeed (foremilk, bulk milk and hindmilk). Significant correlations were found between , , and and the biochemically determined fat concentration per sample ( = 0.38, = 0.77, = 0.80, = 0.44 respectively). We explained the observed variations in the optical properties of human milk using Mie theory and the biological variability in both the concentration and size distribution of milk fat globules. In conclusion, we have provided a full set of optical properties for human milk, which can hopefully serve as a starting point for future biophotonic studies on human milk and the milk containing lactating breast.
母乳是婴儿营养的最重要来源，从全球健康角度来看，保护和支持母乳喂养至关重要。然而，当母亲遇到母乳喂养问题时，用于研究母乳成分和泌乳生理学的客观方法相对较少。我们认为光学和光子学为此提供了有前景的机会。在这个新应用领域内的任何研究活动都始于对光如何与母乳相互作用的透彻理解。因此，本研究的目的是研究母乳的全套光学特性及其内在的生物学变异性。我们采用一种新颖的方法，将空间分辨漫反射光谱（SR-DRS）和光谱光学相干断层扫描（sOCT）结合起来，在450至650纳米波长范围内，对14名参与者在母乳喂养不同阶段（前奶、奶液和后奶）挤出的成熟母乳的吸收系数、散射系数、约化散射系数、各向异性和后向散射系数进行了量化。发现吸收系数、散射系数、约化散射系数和后向散射系数与每个样本生化测定的脂肪浓度之间存在显著相关性（分别为r = 0.38、r = 0.77、r = 0.80、r = 0.44）。我们用米氏理论以及乳脂肪球浓度和大小分布的生物学变异性解释了观察到的母乳光学特性变化。总之，我们提供了母乳的全套光学特性，有望作为未来关于母乳和含乳母乳的生物光子学研究的起点。
