Breast Milk Contains Obesity Hormone

Why breast milk contains obesity hormone? Leptin is a hormone substance that correlate to the fat. Leptin, a hormone that appears to play an important role in body metabolism and obesity, has been found for the first time in human breast milk.

Leptin contains in the breast milk in levels that are lower than, but correlate with, levels in the mother's bloodstream. This founded by the research that found of the amount of leptin in the breast milk correlates with the amount of body fat of the mother; obese mothers produce large amounts of leptin, thin mothers produce almost no leptin in their breast milk. The study was published in the current issue of the scientific journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.

Leptin contains is come from fat cell and placenta, after the experiment that is injected some leptin in a mice soon lose their excess weight. Scientists are hoping that by learning more about leptin, they can control the problems of obesity and its related maladies, such as diabetes and heart disease. Although the researchers found leptin in the milk, at this point they aren't sure what role the hormone plays for mothers and infants. "Like many hormones in breast milk, it is difficult to determine what it is doing," Houseknecht says. "It may be that leptin is doing nothing; it may be that the leptin is just there."

"Leptin in breast milk could mean lots of things to the infant's development. There are receptors for leptin throughout the gastrointestinal tract of adults. If leptin is important to the neonate, we know there is a mechanism for it to get from the intestine to the blood-stream."

Leptin from mother milk may not cause problem for baby but leptin contain from cow milk can cause different effect to the baby. No one knows yet if leptin is present in cow's milk, or if the pasteurization process damages the hormone, Houseknecht adds.

Researchers don't know whether leptin offers any advantages or disadvantages for infant development, but they do know that infants whose nursing mothers have significant fat tissue will be exposed to more leptin in the milk. "Leptin levels reflect the mom's leptin levels," Houseknecht says. "Very thin mothers don't produce very much leptin. This adds another interesting twist to this story, because if leptin is important for infant development, these varying levels may mean that some infants are at a disadvantage."