BREASTFEEDING RESEARCH!
Breastfeeding Protects Babies from Post-Immunization Fevers?
Have you ever nursed through, or after, your baby's immunization? I used
to do it to comfort my son, but now there's some evidence that the
fact that I was breastfeeding him was protecting him from post-shot
fevers.
A study just published in Pediatrics
looked at the incidence of fever after immunizations among
babies who were exclusively breastfed, partially breastfed, and formula
fed.
In a sample of 450 babies, they found
that fever was reported for 25% of the exclusively breastfed babies,
31% for the partially breastfed babies, and 53% for the formula fed
babies. So not breastfeeding roughly doubled the incidence of fever
compared to exclusively breastfed babies.
Why would this be? The authors note that different responses to
viruses among breastfed and not-breastfed babies. They also note that
it could be that babies feed more frequently for comfort after an
immunization, thereby taking in more calories in the post-immunization
period - a pattern which does not occur with formula fed babies.
Reduced caloric intake is associated with higher levels of
pro-inflammatory factors.
Substance in Breast Milk Kills Cancer CellsScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2010)
— A substance found in breast milk can kill cancer cells, reveal
studies carried out by researchers at Lund University and the University
of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Although the special substance, known as HAMLET (Human
Alpha-lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumour cells), was discovered in breast
milk several years ago, it is only now that it has been possible to
test it on humans. Patients with cancer of the bladder who were treated
with the substance excreted dead cancer cells in their urine after each
treatment, which has given rise to hopes that it can be developed into
medication for cancer care in the future.
Discovered by chance
HAMLET was discovered by chance when researchers were studying the
antibacterial properties of breast milk. Further studies showed that
HAMLET comprises a protein and a fatty acid that are both found
naturally in breast milk. So far, however, it has not been proven that
the HAMLET complex is spontaneously formed in the milk. It is
speculated, however, that HAMLET can form in the acidic environment of
the babies´ stomachs. Laboratory experiments have shown that HAMLET
kills 40 different types of cancer, and the researchers are now going on
to study its effect on skin cancer, tumours in the mucous membranes and
brain tumours. Importantly, HAMLET kills only cancer cells and does not
affect healthy cells.
Studying the integration of the substance
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg are focusing on how
HAMLET can be taken up into tumour cells. The researchers, Roger
Karlsson, Maja Puchades and Ingela Lanekoff, are attempting to gain an
in-depth understanding of how the substance interacts with cell
membranes, and their findings were recently published in the journal PLoS One
Breastmilk Contains Stem Cells
Mammary stem cells (red/blue) and differentiated adult mammary cells (green) isolated from human breast milk.
The Perth scientist who made the world-first discovery that human breast
milk contains stem cells is confident that within five years scientists
will be harvesting them to research treatment for conditions as
far-reaching as spinal injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
But what Dr Mark Cregan is excited about right now is the promise that
his discovery could be the start of many more exciting revelations about
the potency of breast milk.
He believes that it not only meets all the nutritional needs of a
growing infant but contains key markers that guide his or her
development into adulthood.
“We already know how breast milk provides for the baby’s nutritional
needs, but we are only just beginning to understand that it probably
performs many other functions,” says Dr Cregan, a molecular biologist at
The University of Western Australia.
He says that, in essence, a new mother’s mammary glands take over from
the placenta to provide the development guidance to ensure a baby’s
genetic destiny is fulfilled.
“It is setting the baby up for the perfect development,” he says. “We
already know that babies who are breast fed have an IQ advantage and
that there’s a raft of other health benefits. Researchers also believe
that the protective effects of being breast fed continue well into adult
life.
“The point is that many mothers see milks as identical – formula milk
and breast milk look the same so they must be the same. But we know now
that they are quite different and a lot of the effects of breast milk
versus formula don’t become apparent for decades. Formula companies have
focussed on matching breast milk’s nutritional qualities but formula
can never provide the developmental guidance.”
It was Dr Cregan’s interest in infant health that led him to investigate
the complex cellular components of human milk. “I was looking at this
vast complexity of cells and I thought, ‘No one knows anything about
them’.”
His hunch was that if breast milk contains all these cells, surely it has their precursors, too?
His team cultured cells from human breast milk and found a population
that tested positive for the stem cell marker, nestin. Further analysis
showed that a side population of the stem cells were of multiple
lineages with the potential to differentiate into multiple cell types.
This means the cells could potentially be “reprogrammed” to form many
types of human tissue.
He presented his research at the end of January to 200 of the world’s
leading experts in the field at the International Conference of the
Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation in Perth.
“We have shown these cells have all the physical characteristics of stem
cells. What we will do next is to see if they behave like stem cells,”
he says.
If so, they promise to provide researchers with an entirely ethical
means of harvesting stem cells for research without the debate that has
dogged the harvesting of cells from embryos.
Further research on immune cells, which have also been found in breast
milk and have already been shown to survive the baby’s digestive
process, could provide a pathway to developing targets to beat certain
viruses or bacteria.
