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The Importance of -Lactalbumin in Infant Nutrition¹

U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX

The ideal "humanization" of milk substitutes should include the creation of an amino acid pattern closely resembling that of human milk. Because the mixture of proteins in human milk is particularly rich in tryptophan and cysteine and low in methionine, this pattern is difficult to achieve with commercially available proteins. Even whey-predominant formulas only approximate human milk. Human milk has a high concentration of whey protein (70% of total protein). Of this, -lactalbumin, a component of the lactase synthetase complex, accounts for 41% of the whey and 28% of the total protein. Only 3% of the protein in bovine milk is -lactalbumin. Human and bovine -lactalbumin share a 72% amino acid sequence homology. Both proteins contain (wt/wt) 6% tryptophan and 5% cysteine but only 0.9% methionine. Thus the differences in the amino acid compositions of bovine and human milks are largely attributable to differences in their -lactalbumin contents. Commercial availability of bovine -lactalbumin would allow the construction of infant formulas with amino acid compositions that are very close to that of human milk. -Lactalbumin would also be a valuable constituent of diets for patients whose protein intake must be restricted.

KEY WORDS: • -lactalbumin • milk • formulas • infants • amino acids

¹ This review was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX. This project has been funded in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service under Cooperative Agreement No. 58-7MN1-6-100. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.

Manuscript received 24 September 1990. Revision accepted 27 November 1990.

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