Is dietary epidermal growth factor absorbed by premature human infants?
Urinary epidermal growth factor (EGF) levels from infants receiving breast milk, a rich source of the growth factor, were compared with the levels excreted by infants receiving bovine milk based formulae or total parenteral nutrition that contains very little EGF. Although at 5-10 days after birth there was no significant difference in the urinary EGF output by the three groups of infants, by 13-17 days the urinary EGF output by breastfed infants was higher than by infants fed the two EGF-poor diets. These latter results are consistent with the hypothesis that EGF crosses the gastrointestinal wall to enter the general circulation in the suckling infant.
Gale
S M
SM
Department of Biochemistry, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Read
L C
LC
George-Nascimento
C
C
Wallace
J C
JC
Ballard
F J
FJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine; D004032:Diet; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000652:urine; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000378:metabolism*; D007408:Intestinal Absorption; D008297:Male; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000378:metabolism; D011863:Radioimmunoassay
D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor; D003404:Creatinine