Abstract
Data accumulated over recent years have significantly advanced our understanding of growth factors, cytokines, and hormones in breast milk. Here we deal with leptin, adiponectin, IGF-I, ghrelin, and the more recently discovered hormones, obestatin, and resistin, which are present in breast milk and involved in food intake regulation and energy balance. Little is known about these compounds in infant milk formulas. Nutrition in infancy has been implicated in the long-term tendency to obesity, and a longer duration of breastfeeding appears to protect against its development. Diet-related differences in serum leptin and ghrelin values in infancy might explain anthropometric differences and differences in dietary habits between breast-fed and formula-fed infants also later in life. However, there are still gaps in our understanding of how hormones present in breast milk affect children. Here we examine the data related to hormones contained in mother's milk and their potential protective effect on subsequent obesity.
Highlights
Studies on the physiology of breastfeeding revealed the presence of the two adipokines, leptin [1] and adiponectin [2], hormones, such as IGF-I [3], ghrelin [4], and more recently obestatin [5] and resistin [6] in mother’s milk (Table 1)
Leptin and ghrelin have a positive effect on the early control of satiety in infants and could influence the programming of energy balance regulation in childhood and adulthood thereby protecting against later obesity [7]
We identified a direct correlation between the circulating level of ghrelin and age, weight, and length in infants in the first months of life and a negative correlation between circulating ghrelin levels and weight gain only in infants who have been breast-fed for at least four months, but not in them who have been formula fed [56]
Summary
Data accumulated over recent years have significantly advanced our understanding of growth factors, cytokines, and hormones in breast milk. We deal with leptin, adiponectin, IGF-I, ghrelin, and the more recently discovered hormones, obestatin, and resistin, which are present in breast milk and involved in food intake regulation and energy balance. Little is known about these compounds in infant milk formulas. Diet-related differences in serum leptin and ghrelin values in infancy might explain anthropometric differences and differences in dietary habits between breast-fed and formula-fed infants later in life. There are still gaps in our understanding of how hormones present in breast milk affect children. We examine the data related to hormones contained in mother’s milk and their potential protective effect on subsequent obesity
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