Adeleh Khodabakhshi and Mohamad Safarian
Shahid Behesti University of Medical Science, Iran
Mashhad University of Medical Science, Iran
Background: Obese infants are more susceptible to develop adulthood obesity and its related comorbidities. Previous studies have shown the presence of hormones and growth factors in maternal breast milk that may influence infant adiposity. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 40 mothers with overweight or obese infants and 40 age-matched mothers with normalweight infant who were between 2 and 5 months of age were enrolled. Daily breast milk intake, the level of fat, protein, carbohydrate in breast milk and concentrations of ghrelin and adiponectin, leptin, epithelial growth factor (EGF) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in breast milk and maternal serum were measured. Results: The mean breast milk concentration of ghrelin was higher in mothers with normal-weight infants, 137.50 pg/ml, than in mothers with obese infants, 132.00 pg/ml (P=0.001). This was also true regarding the concentration of EGF in mothers with (0.04ng/ ml) and without (0.038ng/ml) normal-weight infants (P=0.01). No significant differences were observed in concentrations of leptin, adiponectin and IGF-1 between two groups (P>0.05). There was also a significant positive correlation between EGF and ghrelin in both groups. A negative correlation was shown between serum EGF and IGF1 in the group of mothers with obese infant; but this correlation in breast milk of mothers with normal infant was positive. A positive correlation was observed between IGF1 in breast milk and serum of mothers with normal infant. The content of macronutrient did not differ in two groups but daily breast milk consumption was higher in the obese infant. Conclusions: This study revealed the correlations of the hormones and growth factors in breast milk and serum of mothers with obese and non-obese infants, suggesting a possible regulatory effect of these factors on weight in infants.
Adeleh Khodabakhshi received his PhD in Nutrition at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science in Iran. He was a faculty member at Jiroft University of Medical Science. He serves as an Editorial Board Member for Journal of Biology and today world. He has published some papers about obesity. One of them published in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Email: khodabakhshiadeleh@yahoo.com
