Health Issue: Mother's Milk Benefits

Mother's Milk Benefits Kids'

genes, boosts immunity

Washington: Giving reasons why mother's milk is always better than any formula, scientists have claimed that breast milk improves the functioning of their genes in a way that protects them from illness.

      Researchers at the University of Illinois have found that infants' first food affects their gene expression, giving a possible mechanism for how breast milk impacts health, Gene expression is the process by which instructions in a gene are used to synthesise a functional gene product, mostly proteins. When genes are expressed, it is as if they are "turned on".

      Lead researcher Sharon Donovan of the University of Illinois said that it has already been known that breast milk contains immune -- protective components that make a breastfed infant's risk lower for all kinds of illnesses.

      "But what we haven't known is how breast milk protects the infants and how it regulates the development of the intestine," she said, adding that understanding those differences could help formula makers develop a product that is more like the real thing, "Genes are really sensitive to nutrition. And we now have genes that may explain many of the clinical observations of how breast-fed infants differ," she said.

       Using a novel non-invasive technique for their study, the researchers compared 10 three-month-old formula - fed babies with 12 breast-fed infants of the same age. Capitalising on the natural sloughing off of intestinal cells during digestion, they looked for signs of gene expression, in the form of messenger RNA, in the babies' poop.

       Breast milk and formula have different effects on at least 146 genes, the researchers found. According to Donovan, most of the genes enhanced by breast milk promote quick development of the intestine and immune system. Some of the genes positively affected by breast milk protect against "leaky gut", a disorder in which foreign particles enter the blood stream through the intestinal wall, she said.