Trace elements in human transitory milk

Multielement analysis was performed on human milk collected on 5-9-d postpartum from 51 Japanese females using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) mass spectrometry (MS), ICP atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and fluorometry. Thirty-one elements were detected by these analytical methods in milk. Twelve elements (Na, Mg, P, S, K, Ca, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr, Rb, and Mo) were detected in all of the samples. Al, Cs, and Ba were the elements detected by ICP-MS in more than half of the samples. Multiple regression analysis extracted biological attributes of mother and infant, such as maternal stature, maternal wt, or infant's birth wt, as statistically significant factors contributing to the variation in elemental concentration in milk. However, the rates of contribution were small in all cases. It was concluded that the biological attributes of mother and infant examined in this study were not the major factors that contribute to elemental variation in human milk.