Lipidomic study of yak milk reveals potential biomarkers for the design of infant formulas

Abstract

Recent research on yak milk has revealed that it is an alternative to cow milk as another high-quality milk source for infant formula milk powder; however, the differences in the lipid profiles of human and yak milk are not yet clear. In this study, the lipidome and fatty acid composition of milk samples were analyzed and compared. We identified 298 lipid molecular species and 169 lipid molecular species that were significantly different in positive and negative ion modes. Yak milk showed significant differences in the contents of most triglycerides (TG), diacylglycerols, and polar lipid species compared with human milk, especially TG (14:0/14:0/15:0) and TG (12:0/16:0/17:0), which were more abundant in yak milk and were mainly related to glycerolipid metabolism. The potential biomarkers we discovered did not include PUFA. This comprehensive analysis will hopefully aid in the design of infant formulas using yak milk.