What nutrients does umbilical cord blood contain?

When it comes to the source of nutrition for babies, I believe everyone's first reaction is breast milk, after all, it is the main source of nutrition for babies after birth. However, if you trace the source, you will encounter a question: when did the baby first have a nutritional connection with the mother? Was it from the moment the fertilized egg was formed? The answer is no. So when did it start?

Today, let’s trace back to the earliest source of nutrition for babies and what nutrients are included in this source of nutrition?

01. Early embryonic nutrition source

In fact, the embryo does not need to obtain nutrition from the mother in the early stage. Its nutrition source is the egg cell, which not only contains a large amount of nutrients, but also includes a series of substances that start life, such as mitochondria, ribosomes and other organelles, as well as enzymes required for various biological reactions.

From the fertilized egg, in fact, for quite a long time, the fertilized egg begins to divide, but it does not rely on external nutrients, but uses its own nutrients to proliferate. This stage lasts until the blastocyst stage.

02. The baby establishes a connection with the mother

However, the blastocyst begins to implant. From this moment on, the baby is officially connected to the mother. The implanted embryo begins to connect to the uterus through blood vessels. At the same time, part of the blastocyst is tightly combined with the mother's uterus to form a placenta and other structures. The role of this structure is to fix the embryo on the one hand, and to provide nutrition to the baby on the other.

Therefore, the baby is truly connected to the mother and receives nutrition from the mother from implantation. Before that, the baby's cells are just proliferating, but the total volume and weight remain unchanged. After that, the baby not only continues to proliferate, but also begins to change in volume and weight, and develops all the way until the baby has tens of trillions of cells.

During this period, the baby's only source of nutrition is the mother, and the core of this connection is: umbilical cord blood.

03. Umbilical cord blood nutrition group

The mother continuously delivers nutrients to the baby through umbilical cord blood. Because of this, umbilical cord blood carries the most complete nutrients, which can meet all the nutritional needs of the baby and ensure the baby's healthy growth.

So what nutrients are there in umbilical cord blood?

This brings up a concept, that is, the umbilical cord blood nutrient group. As the name suggests, it refers to all the nutrients contained in the umbilical cord blood.

Many people may take it for granted that since umbilical cord blood is blood, its main components must be plasma and blood cells, especially blood cells such as white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.

However, due to the existence of the placental barrier, these ingredients themselves will hardly enter the baby's body. What really works is the nutrients in the plasma, which are the chemical components that the baby needs most.

The most common components are naturally the three basic organic substances of life: protein, fat and sugar. These organic substances are not only the structural substances of life, but also the dominant components of a series of processes such as energy, metabolism and catalysis of life.

However, if these were the only components of the umbilical cord blood nutrient group, there would not be too many surprises, because these three types of substances are the most common organic substances in any type of blood.

Some other substances in the umbilical cord blood nutrient group are of special significance, especially for babies in the process of development and growth. Below we introduce several substances unique to the umbilical cord blood nutrient group.

04. Lutein

Lutein is a type of carotenoid with a chemical formula of C40H56O20. It is a natural pigment synthesized by plants and widely found in vegetable, fruit and other plant structures. However, this plant ingredient is indeed essential for babies. Lutein is an important component of the eye structure and is mainly concentrated in the macula of the eye, thereby resisting blue light and oxidative damage. Therefore, lutein is an important component for the baby's visual development and plays a role in the baby's brain development [1].

Because of this, the role of lutein is so vital, however, humans cannot synthesize lutein on their own, so food intake is the only source of lutein, and for babies, that is what the umbilical cord blood nutrient group must provide.

This has been confirmed by research showing that lutein is present in very high concentrations in umbilical cord blood[2].

As shown in the figure above, lutein is the part with the highest proportion of carotene in plasma. Moreover, it is worth noting that the proportion of lutein in cord blood nutrient group (cord plasma) is much higher than that in pregnant women's blood, which reflects that lutein itself will present an aggregation and amplification process in umbilical cord blood.

Moreover, lutein’s role is not only during pregnancy. In fact, lutein continues to play a role after the baby is born. Therefore, lutein is still crucial for the baby after birth.

The following table shows the changes in lutein concentration in breast milk (μg/L)

We can see that lutein is still present in breast milk. This is because for most babies, their nutrition mainly comes from breast milk until they can consume non-breast milk foods. At this time, they need lutein, so breast milk needs to provide them with lutein[3].

One of the reasons is that vision is critical for development after birth. After all, there is basically no exposure to light during pregnancy, but after birth, the baby is exposed to the objective world and will be exposed to various types of light, such as blue light damage. Therefore, the baby needs to continue to supplement lutein after birth so that his vision can be protected to the greatest extent.

05. DHA

I believe many people are very familiar with DHA. After all, this ingredient has become an important ingredient in many milk powders and children's nutritional products. DHA is a polyunsaturated fatty acid with a molecular formula of C22H32O2. Its biggest function is that it is an important component of the brain. DHA participates in the formation and development of brain cells, participates in the formation of nerve cell structures such as axons, and is essential for maintaining the normal physiological activities of nerve cells [4].

Similarly, DHA mainly relies on external supplementation, and this is also reflected in the umbilical cord blood nutrition group.

DHA was found in the venous plasma of normal pregnant women and the umbilical cord plasma of newborns. The DHA content in umbilical cord blood is as high as 3.5 times that of normal venous blood[5].

Of course, for babies, their brains are still developing rapidly after birth, so they continue to need DHA. This can be seen from the fact that breast milk contains DHA[6].

06, RRR (α-tocopherol)

α-Tocopherol is a type of vitamin E and the most important form of vitamin E in plasma. It is essential for fetal development. In fact, as an antioxidant ingredient, the main function of α-tocopherol is to cope with the oxidative damage stress faced by the baby, thereby maintaining the development of the fetus, especially the development of the central nervous system, and can effectively resist the oxidation of DHA. α-Tocopherol can form a variety of structures based on its conformation, among which the naturally occurring one is the RRR type (α-tocopherol). This component is highly enriched in the cerebral cortex of human infants and young children, and shows a trend of accumulation with age [7].

There is also a high proportion of RRR in the umbilical cord blood nutrition group.

And because of its long-term significance for the baby's development, the baby still needs RRR in nutrition after birth. Naturally, we can also see the presence of RRR in breast milk.

The figure above shows the changes in RRR in breast milk at different stages [8].

Of course, in addition to lutein, DHA and RRR-type α-tocopherol, some other ingredients are also important components of the umbilical cord blood nutrient group, such as various vitamins.

In fact, the baby's internal development is a very special stage, because this stage is the process of the baby's development from 1 cell to tens of trillions of cells, and it is also the process of the baby's development from a fertilized egg to hundreds of cell types and dozens of tissues and organs.

The special thing about this process is that for babies, their only source of nutrition is umbilical cord blood, which can be said to be the source of maternal nutrition. In addition, the key nutrients in the umbilical cord blood nutrient group will also continue in breast milk, and continue to promote the baby's eye and brain development after the baby is born, helping the baby to perceive the world. Therefore, the research on the umbilical cord blood nutrient group is of great significance in revealing the development of babies. This is also a new research hotspot in recent years, and may provide some new references for nutritional supplements for babies.

1 Alves-Rodrigues, Alexandra, and Andrew Shao. "The science behind lutein." Toxicology letters 150.1 (2004): 57-83.

2 Sun, Hanxiao, et al. "Carotenoid profile in breast milk and maternal and cord plasma: a longitudinal study in southwest China." British Journal of Nutrition: 1-24.

3 Sun Hanxiao, Mao Yingyi, Yang Xijuan, Cai Xiaokun, Zhao Yanrong, Chen Jinyao, Zhang Lishi. Study on the content of carotenoids in mature breast milk in six regions of China[J]. Journal of Nutrition, 2019, 41(06): 534-538.

4 Tanaka, Kazuhiro, et al. "Effects of docosahexaenoic acid on neurotransmission." Biomolecules & therapeutics 20.2 (2012): 152.

5 Zhang Enping, Li Hongjuan. Gas chromatography determination of fatty acid composition in normal maternal venous plasma and neonatal umbilical plasma[J]. Journal of Shanxi Medical University, 1999(01):5-6.

6 He Guanghua, Li Guipu, Zhou Bing, Xiao Hailong, Chu Xiaojun, Ye Xingqian. Study on fatty acid composition and distribution of breast milk at different lactation stages in Shanghai and Zhejiang[J]. Journal of Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, 2019, 19(04): 249-257.

7 Lou Zeru, Wu Ke, Sun Hanxiao, Mao Yingyi, Cai Xiaokun, Zhao Yanrong, Cai Meiqin. Study on the distribution of natural RRR configuration and synthetic configuration of α-tocopherol in maternal blood and umbilical cord blood in six regions of China[J]. Modern Preventive Medicine, 2020, 47(19): 3589-3592+3597.

8 Wu Ke, Sun Hanxiao, Mao Yingyi, Tian Fang, Cai Xiaokun, Zhao Yanrong, Cai Meiqin. Distribution of natural RRR and synthetic configurations of α-tocopherol in breast milk[J]. Acta Nutrimenta Sinica, 2019, 41(06): 539-543.