title: Host factors in amniotic fluid and breast milk that contribute to gut maturation.
abstract: The gut represents a complex organ system with regional differences, which reflect selective digestive and absorptive functions that change constantly in response to bodily requirements and the outside milieu. As a barrier to the external environment, gut epithelium must be renewed rapidly and repeatedly. Growth and renewal of gut epithelial cells is dependent on controlled cell stimulation and proliferation by a number of signaling processes and agents, including gut peptides-both endogenous and exogenous sources. This cascade of events begins during fetal development; with the ingestion of amniotic fluid, this process is enhanced and continued during infancy and early childhood through the ingestion of human milk. Events influenced by amniotic fluid during fetal development and those influenced by human milk that unfold after birth and early childhood to render the gut mature are presented.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina, 173 Ashley Avenue, P.O. Box 250513, Charleston, SC 29425, USA. wagnercl@musc.edu
authors.forename: Carol L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Sarah N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000502:physiology; D047109:Fetal Development; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D010539:Permeability
chemical_list: D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins