Biochemical Study on Some Important Markers in Human Milk

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of medicine, Assiut University

2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University

3 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Sohag university

Abstract

Human milk offers the infants nutrients with high bioavailability as well as a large
number of bioactive components such as lactoferrin, lysozyme and xanthine oxidase
enzyme that confer immune and non immune protection against pathogens in the
infant's environment. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the
changes that occur in the levels of lactoferrin, lysozyme and xanthine oxidase
enzyme in the different stages of human milk and to perform correlation between the
levels of these protective factors in each stage of human milk and between the level
of each and both the age and parity of the mothers. The present study included
80 women divided into 3 groups, Group I: 25 mothers provided colostrum,
Group II: 25 mothers provided transitional milk and Group III: 30 mothers
provided mature milk. The levels of lactoferrin and lysozyme and the activity of
xanthine oxidase enzyme were measured. Lactoferrin level and xanthine oxidase
enzyme activity were significantly lower in transitional milk and mature milk
than in colostrum (P < 0.0001) and lower in mature milk than in transitional milk
(P < 0.01 and P < 0.001) respectively. On the other hand, the level of lysozyme
was significantly lower in transitional milk than in colostrum (P < 0.01) but there
is no significant difference between mature milk and either transitional milk or
colostrum. There is no correlation between the levels of these parameters and either
the age or the parity of the mothers in the different stages of human milk. There
is significant positive correlation between lysozyme and lactoferrin in group I (r =
0.52, P < 0.01) and xanthine oxidase in group III (r = 0.44, P < 0.05). On the other
hand, there was significant negative correlation between lysozyme and lactoferrin
in group II (r = 0.55, P < 0.01). In conclusion, human's milk and colostrum
contains important bioactive and protective agents that improve the infant's health.

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