title: Duration of lactation and maternal adipokines at 3 years postpartum.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Lactation has been associated with reduced maternal risk of type 2 diabetes, the metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. We examined the relationship between breastfeeding duration and maternal adipokines at 3 years postpartum.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used linear regression to relate the duration of lactation to maternal leptin, adiponectin, ghrelin, and peptide YY (PYY) at 3 years postpartum among 570 participants with 3-year postpartum blood samples (178 fasting), prospectively collected lactation history, and no intervening pregnancy in Project Viva, a cohort study of mothers and children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 88% of mothers had initiated breastfeeding, 26% had breastfed ≥ 12 months, and 42% had exclusively breastfed for ≥ 3 months. In multivariate analyses, we found that duration of total breastfeeding was directly related to PYY and ghrelin, and exclusive breastfeeding duration was directly related to ghrelin (predicted mean for never exclusively breastfeeding: 790.6 pg/mL vs. ≥ 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding: 1,008.1 pg/mL; P < 0.01) at 3 years postpartum, adjusting for pregravid BMI, gestational weight gain, family history of diabetes, parity, smoking status, and age. We found a nonlinear pattern of association between exclusive breastfeeding duration and adiponectin in multivariate-adjusted models.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this prospective cohort study, we found a direct relationship between the duration of lactation and both ghrelin and PYY at 3 years postpartum.
authors.affiliation: Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. astuebe@med.unc.edu
authors.forename: Alison M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Stuebe
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mantzoros
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kleinman
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Gillman
authors.forename: Sheryl
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rifas-Shiman
authors.forename: Erica P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Gunderson
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rich-Edwards
mesh_terms: D054392:Adipokines / Q000097:blood*; D052242:Adiponectin / Q000097:blood; D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D005260:Female; D054439:Ghrelin / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007774:Lactation / Q000502:physiology*; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood; D016014:Linear Models; D019894:Peptide YY / Q000097:blood; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: C499918:ADIPOQ protein, human; D054392:Adipokines; D052242:Adiponectin; D054439:Ghrelin; D020738:Leptin; D019894:Peptide YY