IMMUNE FACTORS IN BREAST MILK: A study and review

Objective: An established source of energy, vitamins, minerals, growth factors, enzymes and hormones, only recent key research has also documented the ability of mothers milk to reduce in infants the incidence of diarrhea, RTI, UTI, otitis media, neonatal septicemia, necrotizing enterocolitis, Crohn’s disease, allergic disorders, SIDS, type I diabetes, and lymphoma. However, the apparently scanty data from Pakistan on relevant antimicrobial constituents has encouraged this evaluation of selected immune factors in the early milk of some Karachi lactating mothers. Design: Milk specimens expressed in sterile containers from lactating women 36-48 hours after parturition were scrutinized for DLC, TIBC and iron, and its centrifuged supernatants for IgA, IgG, IgM, CRP, C3, C4, and Secretor status; blood was drawn for Hb% and ABO(H)/Rh grouping. Setting: A total of 25 colostrums, eleven of which were collected in January 2000 at Karachi’s Imam General Hospital and 14 from voluntary lactating women 36-48 hours after parturition in the maternity ward of the city’s Civil Hospital during Feb-Dec 2003, were processed at Dr. Essa’s Lab & Diagnostic Centre, Karachi. All donors had uncomplicated pregnancies, and no signs of mastitis at the