• Duan Ni, Jian Tan, Laurence Macia, and Ralph Nanan.
• Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
• Bmc Med. 2024 Mar 7; 22 (1): 106106.

BackgroundBreastfeeding (BF) confers metabolic benefits to infants, including reducing risks of metabolic syndrome such as obesity and diabetes later in life. However, the underlying mechanism is not yet fully understood. Hence, we aim to investigate the impacts of BF on the metabolic organs of infants.MethodsPrevious literatures directly studying the influences of BF on offspring's metabolic organs in both animal models and humans were comprehensively reviewed. A microarray dataset of intestinal gene expression comparing infants fed on breastmilk versus formula milk was analyzed.ResultsReanalysis of microarray data showed that BF is associated with enhanced intestinal gluconeogenesis in infants. This resembles observations in other mammalian species showing that BF was also linked to increased gluconeogenesis.ConclusionsBF is associated with enhanced intestinal gluconeogenesis in infants, which may underpin its metabolic advantages through finetuning metabolic homeostasis. This observation seems to be conserved across species, hinting its biological significance.© 2024. The Author(s).

13 keywords...

hide…