Adiponectin, leptin and insulin in breast milk: associations with maternal characteristics and infant body composition in the first year of life

Abstract

Breast milk hormone concentrations were associated with several fixed and modifiable maternal characteristics. Higher concentrations of leptin and intermediate concentrations of insulin were associated with lower infant WFL in the first year of life.

Relationship of Maternal Weight Status Before, During, and After Pregnancy with Breast Milk Hormone Concentrations

“…Other studies that have reported no association between maternal BMI and milk adiponectin levels had lower precision of estimates because of fewer women with elevated BMI, self-reported maternal weights, and wide infant age ranges for milk sampling (14,17,18). Our results of a diminished association over time supports findings by Chan et al (16), who reported no association between maternal prepregnancy BMI and adiponectin levels in breast milk at 3 to 4 months post partum. The finding points out the importance of timing of milk collection.…”

“…In line with this hypothesis, we and others have demonstrated positive associations between milk leptin levels and maternal BMI , but findings on the relationship of maternal BMI to milk insulin and adiponectin have been less consistent. One factor that may explain disparate findings is that while milk composition is known to change over the course of lactation, with a general finding of declines in milk peptides over lactation , the current literature is characterized by within‐ and between‐study heterogeneity in the timing of milk sample collection for analysis . Furthermore, studies of milk hormone variation to date have not taken account of maternal metabolic status at different critical developmental windows.…”

“…In contrast, Shehadeh et al (15) reported postpartum maternal BMI (measured at the time of breast milk sample collection) to have no influence on insulin concentration in transitional milk (days 3 and 10). Two other studies, which may have suffered from low statistical power because of low sample size (14,16), also showed no association between prepregnancy BMI and milk insulin levels. These results warrant further investigation on the potential role of milk insulin in infant appetite, metabolic rate, and obesity risk.…”

“…Leptin is an appetite-regulating hormone produced in the adipose tissue (27) as well as epithelial cells of the mammary gland (28), and it has been found in much higher concentrations in human serum compared with breast milk (20) and in serum of women with obesity than those with normal weight (29). Milk leptin's positive association with maternal BMI (with a small number of exceptions) (19,30) has been well established (11,13,16,31). Our results confirmed this association in exclusively breastfeeding women and extended it by documenting that milk leptin concentration is responsive to dynamic aspects of weight change in pregnancy and lactation.…”

Bioactive components in human milk are differentially associated with rates of lean and fat mass deposition in infants of mothers with normal vs. elevated BMI

“…Chan et al . recently reported a U‐shaped relationship between HM insulin and infant WLZ in a large cross‐sectional study . Our data were longitudinal, included body fat measures and milk sampling controlled for maternal prandial state, which may have contributed to our detection of a more complicated relationship.…”