Carnitine level and several lipid parameters in venous blood of newborns, cord blood and maternal blood and milk.

To obtain a rather complex picture on fat metabolism in newborns, fundamental characteristics of this metabolism as well as the carnitine level in their blood was correlated with corresponding values from cord blood, maternal blood and milk. The concentrations of cholesterol (CHOL), triglycerides (TGL) and apolipoprotein B (Apo-B) in 4 days old infants were higher than in cord blood (P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, resp.), but were only 50% of those in blood of the respective mothers. No differences in HDL-CHOL were observed, whereas the level of apolipoprotein A (Apo-A) in cord blood exceeded that in newborn blood (P < 0.05). The level of carnitine in milk was about twice as high as in maternal blood (P < 0.001) which was the consequence of the high acylcarnitine content in milk. Our results represent a basis for comparison of normal and pathologically altered metabolic situation, e.g. in hypotrophic newborns and potentially in newborns in need of parenteral nutrition.