BACKGROUND Human milk is an important source of bacteria for the developing infant and has been shown to influence the bacterial composition of the neonatal gut, which in turn can affect disease risk later in life. Human milk is also an important source of nutrients, influencing bacterial composition but also directly affecting the host. While recent studies have emphasized the adverse effects ...

BACKGROUND Allomaternal nursing, common in several species of social mammals, also has been reported in nonhuman primates. However, the function of this behavior in enhancing infant survivorship remains poorly understood. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The study was conducted on a free-ranging group of the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) in the Baimaxueshan Natural Reserve....

Introduction: Arginine-phenylalanine-amide-related peptide-3 (RFRP-3) and kisspeptin are believed to be inhibitor and stimulator of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion, respectively. The aim of the present study was to compare the effect of lactation on the expression of RFRP-3 mRNA in dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus (DMH) and KiSS-1 mRNA in arcuate nucleus (ARC) of hypothalamus...

Mineral metabolism in the mother must adapt to the demand created by the fetus and placenta, which together draw calcium and other minerals from the maternal circulation to mineralize the developing fetal skeleton. Similarly, mineral metabolism must adapt in the lactating woman to supply sufficient calcium to milk and the suckling neonate. Potential adaptations include increased intake of miner...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to measure the levels of adherence and to identify factors associated with adherence to option B+ prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) among pregnant and lactating mothers in selected government health facilities of South Wollo Zone, Amhara Region, northeast Ethiopia. METHODS An institution-based cross-sectional quantitative study design was ...

Epidemiological studies in human show that size in early life is related to blood cholesterol concentrations in adult life, raising the hypothesis that early nutrition programs later lipid metabolism, affecting risk for later vascular disease. Here, we tested the hypothesis that nutrition during pregnancy or lactation in the rat programs lipid metabolism in the offspring, studied in adult life ...

Maternal nutrition plays a crucial role in influencing fertility, fetal development, birth outcomes, and breast milk composition. During the critical window of time from conception through the initiation of complementary feeding, the nutrition of the mother is the nutrition of the offspring-and a mother's dietary choices can affect both the early health status and lifelong disease risk of the o...

LC-PUFA (Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids) is those polyunsaturated fatty acids which have more than 20 carbon atoms and 2 or more double bindings. Most important LC-PUFA are EPA or Eicosapentaenoic acid (C 20:5 n-3), AA or Arachidonic acid (C 20:4 n-6) and DHA or Docosahexaenoic Acid (C 22:6 n-3). LCPUFA is important for the structural and functional development of an infant. Such as low...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to replicate a previous study of 1-year-olds that reported a deficit in motor development associated with moderate alcohol use during lactation, using a different but comparable population. METHODOLOGY The mental development of 915 18-month-old toddlers from a random sample of a longitudinal population-based study in the United Kingdom was measured using the Griffiths Devel...

The transfer of calcium from mother to milk during lactation is poorly understood. In this report, we demonstrate that parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) production and calcium transport in mammary epithelial cells are regulated by extracellular calcium acting through the calcium-sensing receptor (CaR). The CaR becomes expressed on mammary epithelial cells at the transition from pregna...