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Studies on the Adequacy of Human Milk and Artificial Human Milk for the Rat¹

One Figure

Agricultural Experiment Station and the School of Nutrition, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Experimental results have been presented which show that mature human milk, even when supplemented with vitamins and minerals to meet the known requirements of the rat for these nutrients, is entirely unsuitable as a diet for the rat. On the other hand, human colostrum, supplemented in like manner, does support a slow rate of growth. An artificial human milk formulated to contain the same gross chemical composition as that of human colostrum promoted approximately the same growth rate. An artificial human milk containing a slightly higher level of protein promoted considerably better growth than was obtained on the human colostrum.

The failure of rats to grow on mature human milk is probably due to: (1) insufficient protein, more particularly protein containing adequate methionine; (2) a deficiency of the unidentified factor S; and (3) a level of lactose in excess of that which can be tolerated by the rat.

Human colostrum is probably deficient in protein, more specifically the amino acid methionine, and contains too much lactose for the rat, but does not appear to be deficient in factor S.

While the rat is obviously a poor experimental animal for use in attempting to evaluate a food for young infants, the results presented here show that, at least as far as the rat is concerned, the artificial human milk formulated to contain a gross composition similar to that of average human colostrum is as nutriitous, if not more so, than the human colostrum used in these studies.

Manuscript received 20 October 1948.