Sphingomyelin (SM) is one of the most abundant polar lipids in breast milk. However， the effects of SM intake in the early stage of life on the short-term and long-term health of infants and young children are unclear. This article takes Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a model organism to explore the effects of sphingomyelin intervention in early life on short-term and long-term antioxidant and anti-aging effects. By analyzing the antioxidant stress capacity， antioxidant enzyme activity， glutathione content， malondialdehyde content， lipofuscin content， ROS content， antioxidant and anti-aging related gene expression during the L4 and adult stages of C. elegans， the mechanism of SM action was elucidated. Reproductive experiments have shown that supplementing milk source SM at concentrations of 0.2 μg/mL (LG) and 20 μg/mL (HG) during infancy is safe. Compared with the CG group， the average and maximum lifespans of the HG group were significantly prolonged， significantly prolonged by 3.75 days and 5.67 days respectively， consistent with changes in ROS levels in larvae and adults， and the stress resistance ability of both larvae and adults was improved. In terms of antioxidant enzymes， the activity of SOD enzyme activity (P＜0.001) and CAT enzyme activity (P＜0.05) and the GSH content (P＜0.01) in HG group larvae were significantly increased， and milk derived SM could significantly reduce the content of MDA in larvae. In the long-term development of life， the content of lipofuscin in HG group decreased (P＜0.001)， and after intervention， the activity of SOD enzyme activity (P＜0.001) and CAT enzyme activity (P＜0.001) was also significantly increased， and after intervention， both GSH content (P＜0.001) and MDA level (P＜0.001) were increased and decreased. In addition， supplementing with milk derived SM during infancy can upregulate the sod-3 and nsy-1 genes in larvae， while adults enhance their antioxidant and anti-aging abilities by upregulating the relative expression of sod-3， ctl-1， and daf-16 genes. In summary， supplementing with a certain amount of bovine milk derived SM during childhood can simultaneously enhance antioxidant and anti-aging abilities in both the short and long term of life.

bovine milk  /  sphingomyelin  /  Caenorhabditis elegans  /  antioxidant  /  anti-aging