Bioactive peptides in preterm human milk: Impact of maternal characteristics and their association to neonatal outcomes

Hormone content of very preterm human milk is partially determined by maternal factors most of them regarding metabolic health and obstetric characteristics. Human milk concentration impacts on growth and development of preterm infants during their stay in the neonatal unit. AbstractHuman milk adipokines in term babies seem partially determined by maternal factors and affect infant's development. We aimed to describe bioactive peptide concentration in very preterm human milk and associations to maternal characteristics and postnatal growth. Mothers delivering ≤32 weeks of gestation and their infant/s were recruited. At 4 weeks of lactation, an aliquot of 24-h-pooled milk was collected for exclusively breastfeeding dyads. Insulin, leptin, adiponectin, and milk fat globule epidermal growth factor-8 (MFG-E8) were measured by enzyme-linked immunoabsorb ent assay in skimmed milk. One hundred mothers (28.8 ± 2.3 weeks at delivery) provided a milk sample. Milk insulin was related to gestational age, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), and galactagogue treatment (final model: adjustedR2: 0.330,p <  0.0001; adjustedβ coefficients: galactagogue treatment: 0.348,p 0.001; pre-pregnancy BMI: 0.274,p 0.009; gestational age: −0.290,p 0.007). Adiponectin was higher in mothers with gestational diabetes (30.7  ± 6.5 vs. 24.8 ± 8 ng/mL,p 0.044). Leptin was associated with pre-pregnancy BMI (Spearman'sρ: 0.648,p <  0.0001) and MFG-E8 to presence of lab...
Source: BioFactors - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research