Endogenous melatonin is synthesized from tryptophan via 5-hydroxytryptamine. It is considered an indoleamine from a biochemical point of view because the melatonin molecule contains a substituted indolic ring with an amino group. The circadian production of melatonin by the pineal gland explains its chronobiotic influence on organismal activity, including the endocrine and non-endocrine rhythms. Other functions of melatonin, including its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, its genomic effects, and its capacity to modulate mitochondrial homeostasis, are linked to the redox status of cells and tissues. With the aid of specific melatonin antibodies, the presence of melatonin has been detected in multiple extrapineal tissues including the brain, retina, lens, cochlea, Harderian gland, airway epithelium, skin, gastrointestinal tract, liver, kidney, thyroid, pancreas, thymus, spleen, immune system cells, carotid body, reproductive tract, and endothelial cells. In most of these tissues, the melatonin-synthesizing enzymes have been identified. Melatonin is present in essentially all biological fluids including cerebrospinal fluid, saliva, bile, synovial fluid, amniotic fluid, and breast milk. In several of these fluids, melatonin concentrations exceed those in the blood. The importance of the continual availability of melatonin at the cellular level is important for its physiological regulation of cell homeostasis, and may be relevant to its therapeutic applications. Because of this, it is essential to compile information related to its peripheral production and regulation of this ubiquitously acting indoleamine. Thus, this review emphasizes the presence of melatonin in extrapineal organs, tissues, and fluids of mammals including humans.

Extrapineal melatonin: sources, regulation, and potential functions.

Diet promotes sleep duration and quality.

Sleep has numerous important physiological and cognitive functions that may be particularly important to elite athletes. Recent evidence, as well as anecdotal information, suggests that athletes may experience a reduced quality and/or quantity of sleep. Sleep deprivation can have significant effects on athletic performance, especially submaximal, prolonged exercise. Compromised sleep may also influence learning, memory, cognition, pain perception, immunity and inflammation. Furthermore, changes in glucose metabolism and neuroendocrine function as a result of chronic, partial sleep deprivation may result in alterations in carbohydrate metabolism, appetite, food intake and protein synthesis. These factors can ultimately have a negative influence on an athlete’s nutritional, metabolic and endocrine status and hence potentially reduce athletic performance. Research has identified a number of neurotransmitters associated with the sleep–wake cycle. These include serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid, orexin, melanin-concentrating hormone, cholinergic, galanin, noradrenaline, and histamine. Therefore, nutritional interventions that may act on these neurotransmitters in the brain may also influence sleep. Carbohydrate, tryptophan, valerian, melatonin and other nutritional interventions have been investigated as possible sleep inducers and represent promising potential interventions. In this review, the factors influencing sleep quality and quantity in athletic populations are examined and the potential impact of nutritional interventions is considered. While there is some research investigating the effects of nutritional interventions on sleep, future research may highlight the importance of nutritional and dietary interventions to enhance sleep.

/pdf/sleep-in-elite-athletes-and-nutritional-interventions-to-3mddqtxhst.pdf

Sleep in elite athletes and nutritional interventions to enhance sleep.

Newborns, and especially those delivered preterm, are probably more prone to oxidative stress than individuals later in life. Also during pregnancy, increased oxygen demand augments the rate of production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and women, even with normal pregnancies, experience elevated oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation compared with nonpregnant women. Also, there appears to be an increase in ROS generation in the placenta of pre-eclamptic women. In comparison with healthy adults, newborn infants have lower levels of plasma antioxidants such as vitamin E, β-carotene, and sulphydryl groups, lower levels of plasma metal binding proteins including ceruloplasmin and transferrin, and reduced activity of erythrocyte superoxide dismutase. This review summarizes conditions of newborns where there is elevated oxidative stress. Included in this group of conditions is asphyxia, respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis and the review also summarizes the literature related to clinical trials of antioxidant therapies and of melatonin, a highly effective antioxidant and free radical scavenger. The authors document there is general agreement that short-term melatonin therapy may be highly effective and that it has a remarkably benign safety profile, even when neonates are treated with pharmacological doses. Significant complications with long-term melatonin therapy in children and adults also have not been reported. None of the animal studies of maternal melatonin treatment or in postnatal life have shown any treatment-related side effects. The authors conclude that treatment with melatonin might result in a wide range of health benefits, improved quality of life and reduced healthcare costs and may help reduce complications in the neonatal period.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-079X.2008.00649.x

Oxidative stress of the newborn in the pre- and postnatal period and the clinical utility of melatonin.

The foundations of lifelong health are built in early childhood

Breast-milk contains a potent mixture of diverse components, such as the non-protein nitrogen fraction which includes nucleotides, whose variation in levels is evident throughout lactation. In addition, these substances play an important role in sleep homeostasis. In the present study, human milk samples were analyzed using a capillary electrophoresis system. The rhythmicity of each nucleotide was studied by cosinor analysis. It was found that the nucleotides 5′AMP, 5′GMP, 5′CMP, and 5′IMP have significant (P < 0.05) circadian rhythms, the acrophases of the first two being during the night, and of the latter two during the day. While 5′UMP did not show a clear circadian rhythm, there was an increase in its levels at night. In conclusion, the rise in nocturnal levels of 5′AMP, 5′GMP, and 5′UMP could be involved in inducing the 'hypnotic' action of breast-milk at night in the infant.

The possible role of human milk nucleotides as sleep inducers.

Evolution of the circadian profile of human milk amino acids during breastfeeding

2) sanas y con lactancia exclusiva, mediante Encuesta Dietetica de Recordatorio de 24 horas y utilizando el software Dial ® , centrandonos en el aporte diario de calcio y vitamina D. La poblacion a estudio se agrupo en funcion de si su ingesta en calcio era mayor (no restrictivas) o menor (restrictivas) a la Ingesta de Referencia para la Poblacion segun la Union Europea. Los resultados obtenidos revelaron inicialmente que en un 64% de dicha poblacion (restrictivas) el aporte energetico seguia una tendencia deficitaria, siendo de 2042.7 ± 458.3 kcal. Ademas su ingesta de calcio (812.4 ± 211.2 mg/dia) fue inferior (p 1200 mg/day). The results showed that 64% of the study population (restrictors) reported a mean energy intake (2042.7 ± 458.3 kcal), calcium intake (812.4 ± 211.2 mg/day) and vitamin D intake (1.71 ± 1.59 µg/day) below the adequate intake level (AI) and lower than non-restrictors estimated intakes (p<0.01). The conclusion of this study is that a high percentage of the lactating women consume a diet below nutritional recommendations during this stage. It is recommended that health professionals should inform these mothers about the correct dietary habits during this period.

Análisis nutricional en el aporte del mineral calcio en mujeres con lactancia

A new analytical technique in capillary electrophoresis: studying the levels of nucleotides in human breastmilk

Amino acids have a determining effect on the nutritional status of the newborn, and their appropriate levels in breast milk are vital for this first stage of life. The amino acids tryptophan, arginine, glutamate, and taurine, for example, are suggested to have a positive effect on immune functions. The purpose of the present study was to develop a new method for the assay of amino acids in human milk by high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) after hydrolysis. Breast milk samples were collected from 77 healthy mothers living in the community of Extremadura (Spain) with less than 2 months of lactation. The samples were then stored at −80 °C. The HPLC-ESI-MS/MS technique proved to be a sensitive and efficient tool for the assay of amino acids in breast milk. The method could be used for the qualitative screening of 40 underivatized amino acids, and for the assay of 20. The resulting data will serve to improve commercial infant formula milks and bring them closer to the reference standard represented by human milk.

Screening for Human Milk Amino Acids by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS

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