Tandem Mass Spectrometric Analysis and Cross-Species Comparison of Triacylglycerol Regioisomers in Mammalian Milk;




Zhao, Qizhu; Fabritius, Mikael; Kalpio, Marika; Al Sazzad, Md Abdullah; Yang, Baoru

PublisherAmerican Chemical Society (ACS)

2026

 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

74

1

1410

1421

0021-8561

1520-5118

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.5c08520

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.5c08520

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/508477723



Milk fats have complex profiles of triacylglycerols (TG) with a significant gap in understanding the species-specific compositions of regioisomers. This study comprehensively analyzed TG regioisomers in milk of eight mammalian species using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry and a calculation algorithm. Distinct TG regioisomer profiles were observed across species, shaped by the phylogenetic status and the structure of digestive tracts (ruminants, pseudo-ruminants, and non-ruminants). The ruminants (cow, goat, and sheep) exhibited highly similar milk TG regioisomeric profiles, while the pseudo-ruminant (camel) showed similar profiles to those of the non-ruminants (dog, horse, human, and pig). The non-ruminants showed a sn-2 abundance of palmitic acid in milk TGs; especially dog and pig milk displayed TG regioisomer profiles close to that of human milk. These findings provide novel insights into cross-species variation in lipid metabolism and the nutritional properties of milk fats, supporting product development for food and early life nutrition.




fatty acidmammalian milk fatregioisomerssn-positiontandem mass spectrometrytriacylglycerol


The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Research Council of Finland (Decision No. 356891, Structures and functions of chiral lipids: A stereospecific and multiomics approach), Business Finland (Decision No. 1675/31/2023), the Research Council of Finland’s research infrastructure funding (Decision No. 337980), the European Union-NextGenerationEU instrument funding (RRF) for the FOODNUTRI National Infrastructure Network (Decision No. 345916), the Finland-China Food and Health Network, and the China Scholarship Council.


Last updated on 12/03/2026 12:20:07 PM