Table 2.

Fatty acid compositions of triacylglycerol-rich lipids in human milk

Fatty acid	Relative mass proportions in triacylglycerol-rich lipids					Quantities as triacylglycerols (mg/mL)
	Low cortisol (<  3 nmol/L)		High cortisol (>  10 nmol/L)		p-value	Low cortisol (<  3 nmol/L)		High cortisol (>  10 nmol/L)		p-value
	Mean	STDEV	Mean	STDEV		Mean	STDEV	Mean	STDEV
Lauric 12:0	3.29	1.22	4.28	1.50	0.001a,b	1.07	0.61	1.53	0.89	0.005b,c
Myristic 14:0	5.37	1.36	6.09	1.53	0.02a,b	1.70	0.82	2.12	0.96	0.02b,c
Myristoleic 14:1n − 5	0.28	0.08	0.26	0.08	0.25a	0.09	0.05	0.09	0.04	0.86c
Palmitic 16:0	23.10	2.55	22.28	2.35	0.03c	7.26	2.98	7.74	2.90	0.41c
Palmitoleic 16:1n − 7	2.77	0.68	2.59	0.78	0.11c	0.89	0.45	0.91	0.46	0.82c
Stearic 18:0	7.16	1.57	6.93	1.48	0.88c	2.22	0.93	2.39	0.98	0.53c
Oleic 18:1n − 9	39.20	3.32	38.92	3.28	0.71c	12.35	4.83	13.74	5.95	0.51c
Vaccenic 18:1n − 7	1.99	0.25	1.99	0.24	0.70c	0.64	0.27	0.70	0.30	0.49c
Linoleic 18:2n − 6	10.62	1.99	10.46	2.10	0.52c	3.32	1.32	3.73	1.86	0.59c
Linolenic 18:3n − 3	1.73	0.56	1.84	0.57	0.48c	0.54	0.26	0.65	0.36	0.18c
Arachidic 20:0	0.19	0.06	0.19	0.04	0.20c	0.06	0.03	0.07	0.02	0.14c
Gondoic 20:1n − 9	0.46	0.11	0.50	0.11	0.01c	0.14	0.07	0.18	0.09	0.07c
Eicosadienoic 20:2n − 6	0.25	0.04	0.25	0.05	0.68a	0.08	0.03	0.09	0.04	0.30c
Dihomogammalinolenic 20:3n − 6	0.33	0.07	0.30	0.08	0.14c	0.10	0.04	0.11	0.06	0.95c
Arachidonic 20:4n − 6	0.39	0.09	0.38	0.13	0.17c	0.12	0.06	0.14	0.12	0.98c
Eicosatrienoic 20:3n − 3	0.04	0.04	0.06	0.04	0.05c	0.02	0.01	0.02	0.02	0.13c
Eicosapentaenoic 20:5n − 3	0.12	0.08	0.12	0.08	0.26c	0.04	0.02	0.04	0.04	0.65c
Behenic 22:0	0.03	0.03	0.04	0.03	0.44c	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.44c
Docosenoic 22:1n − 9	0.07	0.04	0.10	0.03	0.008c	0.02	0.02	0.03	0.02	0.03c
Nervonic 24:1n − 9	0.37	0.19	0.35	0.24	0.27c	0.11	0.07	0.13	0.14	0.80c
Docosahexaenoic 22:6n − 3	0.01	0.08	0.02	0.05	0.16c	0.00	0.02	0.01	0.02	0.16c
Other fatty acids	2.23	0.37	2.05	0.45	0.04a	0.71	0.32	0.71	0.27	0.91c
SAFA	39.14	5.05	39.80	4.18	0.57c	12.32	5.12	13.87	5.21	0.22c
MUFA	44.77	3.46	44.36	3.31	0.55a	14.14	5.57	15.65	6.67	0.49c
PUFA	13.50	2.47	13.43	2.67	0.65c	4.23	1.67	4.79	2.41	0.50c
Omega-3 FAs	1.91	0.59	2.03	0.62	0.50c	0.60	0.29	0.72	0.41	0.18c
Omega-6 FAs	11.59	2.06	11.40	2.19	0.41c	3.63	1.42	4.07	2.03	0.61c
						Triacylglycerols (mg/mL)
						31.52	12.13	35.15	13.85	0.39c

Data is presented as relative proportions (%) and quantities (mg/mL) and grouped based on milk cortisol levels. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between low and high milk cortisol groups are highlighted with bold type. Abbreviations: STDEV standard deviation, SAFA saturated fatty acids, MUFA monounsaturated fatty acids, PUFA polyunsaturated fatty acids

^a Significant difference between the low and high cortisol groups, T-test (df = 98)

^b Milk cortisol (as continuous variable) remained a statistically significant predictor after controlling for pre-pregnancy BMI and sampling time in linear regression analysis, see Additional file 1

^c Significant difference between the low and high cortisol groups, Mann–Whitney U test