{"id":530,"date":"2015-10-30T17:08:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T00:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/factors-in-breast-milk-may-play-a-role-in-transmission-of-obesity\/"},"modified":"2023-11-19T12:08:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T20:08:15","slug":"factors-in-breast-milk-may-play-a-role-in-transmission-of-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/factors-in-breast-milk-may-play-a-role-in-transmission-of-obesity\/","title":{"rendered":"Factors in breast milk may play a role in transmission of obesity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Press Release<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Factors in breast milk may play a role in transmission of obesity<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Considered the first and best nutrition source, breast milk may have a surprising influence on obesity, study finds<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n Zen Vuong<\/span>\n \n October 30, 2015<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Michael Goran of the Childhood Obesity Research Center<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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A new\u00a0study\u00a0suggests the road to obesity may be paved with non-nutritious carbohydrates in breast milk, shifting popular notions about how and why children grow to become overweight adults.<\/p>\n

Previous research has shown that maternal obesity strongly affects a baby\u2019s risk for becoming overweight, but scientists are unsure about how fatness is transmitted, said\u00a0Michael Goran, the study\u2019s corresponding author and director of the\u00a0Childhood Obesity Research Center<\/a>\u00a0at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.<\/p>\n

Now Goran and his collaborators have found that variations in complex carbohydrates found in breast milk called human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are associated with variations in infant growth and obesity. HMOs, a natural component of breast milk, are known to play a role in helping to develop the infant immune system.<\/p>\n

The study, published online in\u00a0The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/em>\u00a0on Oct. 28, is the first to identify variations in HMOs as a possible protective or risk factor for obesity, said Tanya Alderete, lead author and a postdoctoral research scholar at USC.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 6 months of age, higher breast milk\u00a0levels of LNFPII and DSLNT were each associated with\u00a0approximately\u00a01 pound of greater fat mass,\u201d Alderete said. \u201cOther HMOs were protective at 6\u00a0months. Increased amounts of a HMO called LNFPI in breast milk was associated with about a 1-pound lower infant weight and fat mass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excess weight<\/h3>\n

Previous studies on the overall effects of breastfeeding on obesity have produced conflicting results. Many suggested that breastfeeding decreases an infant\u2019s risk of developing obesity in childhood and adolescence. When these researchers examined 71 previous reports on this topic, they found that breastfeeding reduced the prevalence of excess weight and obesity by an average of 10 percent relative to formula.<\/p>\n

However, the specific mix of HMOs in breast milk can make a big difference. The composition of individual breast milk is more important in predicting obesity than even the mother\u2019s obesity and her weight gain during pregnancy, the study found.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly life experiences related to the environment and different feeding modalities contribute to obesity,\u201d said Goran, professor of preventive medicine, physiology and biophysics, and pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine. \u201cBut typically we think of obesity risk kicking in after weaning \u2014 the timing of introduction to solid foods, early exposures to sugary beverages. Clearly there is something going on before weaning even in babies who are exclusively breastfed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obesity protection<\/h3>\n

The study examined 25 mother-infant pairs and looked at breast milk and infant measures at ages 1 and 6 months. Researchers defined breastfeeding as not using infant formula.<\/p>\n

Some babies may have been introduced to solid food, which would have contributed to growth and body composition.<\/p>\n

Although the study is small, its results are promising, Goran said. Larger, longer studies are needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately what we would like to be able to do is identify which of the HMOs are most important for obesity protection and then use that as a supplement that can be given to the breastfeeding infant and added to infant formulae,\u201d Goran said, noting that current infant formula does not contain any HMOs.<\/p>\n

Shaping a baby\u2019s ecosystem<\/h3>\n

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and has quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe infant\u2019s first exposure to nutrition sets the stage either for increased or decreased risk of obesity,\u201d Alderete said.<\/p>\n

HMOs accumulate in the colon because they can\u2019t be digested. As a result, they act as prebiotics and play a role in shaping a baby\u2019s gut microbiome \u2014 the population of microorganisms in the intestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow the gut microbiome develops will have a long-term influence on obesity and health risk,\u201d Goran said. \u201cThese compounds that are not being digested go straight into the infant\u2019s gut and act as prebiotics. They act as fuel for microbes in the gut and help them grow and become diverse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study could not determine cause and effect between HMO composition and obesity, partially because it did not have any measures beyond 6 months of age.<\/p>\n

It may be all about the HMOs<\/h3>\n

While genetics play a role in HMO composition, scientists do not yet know what contributes to variation in the composition of breast milk, Goran said. What mothers eat likely has a role, but this aspect has not been studied, he added.<\/p>\n

Overweight mothers may have a less favorable mix of breast milk HMO, but the study did not address this aspect, Alderete said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo our knowledge, there are no studies examining how HMOs are affected by the mothers\u2019 diet,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would be very interesting if dietary sugar or fat consumption were found to be related to HMOs. That is something we hope to explore in future studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University Hospital at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center collected data about the 25 mothers and infants.<\/p>\n

Expert opinions<\/h3>\n

\u201cThe study was conceptualized, initiated and conducted by my research group,\u201d said David Fields, senior author, associate professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and holder of its CMRI Chickasaw Nation Endowed Chair in pediatric diabetes. \u201cAfter speaking with Drs. Goran and Bode, we decided to analyze for specific human milk oligosaccharides and determine if they are associated with early body composition, that is to say fat and muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bode Lab at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, analyzed HMO composition in the breast milk samples.<\/p>\n

\u201cHMOs are the third most abundant component in human breast milk,\u201d said Lars Bode, corresponding author, an associate professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego and president-elect of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation. \u201cThe concentrations of these complex sugars are higher than the concentrations of all human breast milk proteins combined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers at USC inspected the data, creating models to understand relationships between HMOs and infant growth and body composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[81,20],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-department-of-population-and-public-health-sciences","tag-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFactors in breast milk may play a role in transmission of obesity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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