Lipid composition and structural characteristics of bovine, caprine and human milk fat globules

Milk fat is widely accepted to be the major nutrient in human milk. Commercial infant formulas are usually based on mammalian milk such as bovine or caprine milk, but the differences in milk fat globules (MFGs) between human, bovine and caprine milk remain unclear. We showed that saturated fatty acid content was higher in bovine and caprine MFGs (>60%) than in human MFG (<40%), but that content of the unsaturated fatty acids C18:2 in human MFG was >7 times higher than in bovine and caprine MFGs. The cholesterol content of human milk was ∼20% higher than that of bovine and caprine milk. Triacylglycerol molecular species and polar lipids also differed between bovine, caprine and human MFGs. Confocal laser scanning microscopy images of MFGs revealed that the shape of the liquid-ordered domains varied by species.