Sialic acid has been proved to have many biological functions, including regulating the half-life of blood protein, resisting various toxins, cell adhesion, glycoprotein cleavage protection, antioxidation and promoting brain development.
Promote brain development sialic acid plays a role in regulating gangliosides in the brain. In the 1980s, sialic acid was determined to change the behavior of rats and improve their memory. By comparison between breast fed and milk fed infants, the concentration of ganglioside lipoprotein binding to sialic acid in the gray matter of the frontal cortex was 32% and 22% respectively, indicating that sialic acid can increase synapse formation and promote nerve development. Another interesting experiment was to study the learning and memory performance of piglets by supplementing sialic acid in the early stage. In the early development process, the learning ability and memory of sialic acid fed group were better than that of the control group. Research shows that the golden period of human brain development is from pregnancy to 2 years old. This stage is the key period for the adjustment of brain cell number, large volume, perfect function and the formation of neural network. Therefore, adequate sialic acid intake during pregnancy is very important for fetal development. After birth, breast milk becomes an effective way for infants to supplement sialic acid because it contains 0.3~1.5mg/ml sialic acid. However, the liver development of newborns is still immature. In addition to the need for rapid growth and development of the brain, the sialic acid synthesized by themselves may be very limited, especially for premature infants. Therefore, on the one hand, sialic acid in breast milk is very important to ensure the normal growth and development of infants. On the other hand, if the sialic acid content of infant milk powder is not enough, it may also affect the intellectual development of infants. Antioxidant sialic acid can consume toxic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Japanese scholars observed the cytotoxicity of H2O2 on cells in the medium supplemented with sialic acid, and confirmed that sialic acid can inhibit the cell death caused by H2O2.
