Abstract
Human milk (HM) contains a plethora of metabolic hormones, including leptin, which is thought to participate in the regulation of the appetite of the developing infant. Leptin in HM is derived from a combination of de novo mammary synthesis and transfer from the maternal serum. Moreover, leptin is partially lipophilic and is also present in HM cells. However, leptin has predominately been measured in skim HM, which contains neither fat nor cells. We optimised an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for leptin measurement in both whole and skim HM and compared leptin levels between both HM preparations collected from 61 lactating mothers. Whole HM leptin ranged from 0.2 to 1.47 ng/mL, whilst skim HM leptin ranged from 0.19 to 0.9 ng/mL. Whole HM contained, on average, 0.24 ± 0.01 ng/mL more leptin than skim HM (p < 0.0001, n = 287). No association was found between whole HM leptin and fat content (p = 0.17, n = 287), supporting a cellular contribution to HM leptin. No difference was found between pre- and post-feed samples (whole HM: p = 0.29, skim HM: p = 0.89). These findings highlight the importance of optimising HM leptin measurement and assaying it in whole HM to accurately examine the amount of leptin received by the infant during breastfeeding.
Highlights
Human milk (HM) is a heterogeneous fluid composed of a combination of macro- and micro-nutrients, cells, and a plethora of biomolecules that provide the necessary elements to sustain infant growth, protection and development [1,2,3]
Mean leptin concentrations for 15-fold and 20-fold dilutions were close to the highest protein standard, further consideration was not given to these dilution factors (Figure 2)
We found no difference between the concentration of whole human milk (HM) leptin in pre- and post-feed samples, indicating the small samples taken either pre- or post-feed provide the same levels of leptin despite differences in fat content
Summary
Human milk (HM) is a heterogeneous fluid composed of a combination of macro- and micro-nutrients, cells, and a plethora of biomolecules that provide the necessary elements to sustain infant growth, protection and development [1,2,3]. The complex system of breastfeeding-mediated appetite regulation is attributable to various factors associated with the practice of breastfeeding, such as feeding on demand, and potentially to a host of appetite regulatory molecules present in HM [4]. These include whey and casein proteins, HM oligosaccharides, and recently discovered in HM appetite regulatory hormones, including the well-documented adipokine leptin, adiponectin, and many others [10,11,12,13,14]. White adipose tissue is one of the main sources of serum
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
