Manganese absorption from human milk, cow's milk, and infant formulas in humans.

Manganese absorption from human milk, cow's milk, and infant formulas was studied in humans by using extrinsic labeling of the diets with manganese 54 or manganese 52 and whole-body retention measurements. The fractional manganese absorption from human milk (8.2% +/- 2.9%) was significantly different when compared with cow's milk (2.4% +/- 1.7%), soy formula (0.7% +/- 0.2%), and whey-preponderant cow's milk formula with 12 mg/L of iron (1.7% +/- 1.0%) and without iron fortification (2 mg/L of iron) (3.1% +/- 2.8%), while no significant difference was observed between a whey-preponderant cow's milk formula with 7 mg/L of iron (5.9% +/- 4.8%) and human milk. The total amount of absorbed manganese was significantly higher from the non--iron-fortified cow's milk formula (2 mg/L of iron) as compared with human milk, while no significant differences were observed for the other milks and formulas.