title: Breast milk leptin and adiponectin in relation to infant body composition up to 2 years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adipokines in breast milk have been associated with infant growth trajectories.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to explore the relationship of leptin and adiponectin in breast milk with infant weight gain and body composition up to the age of 2 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Breast milk samples were collected from exclusively or partially breastfeeding mothers at 6 weeks (n = 152) and 4 months (n = 120) post-partum. Leptin and adiponectin were determined in skim breast milk and related to infant growth and fat mass assessed by skin-fold thickness measurements. A total of 118 infants were examined at 2 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The levels of both milk adipokines were slightly lower at 4 months compared with 6 weeks post-partum. Breast milk leptin was largely unrelated to infant anthropometric measures up to 2 years. Milk adiponectin tended to be inversely related to early infant anthropometry up to 4 months, but beyond was positively associated with weight gain and the sum of skin-folds up to 2 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that higher adiponectin levels in breast milk might be associated with greater weight gain and higher fat mass in the offspring up to 2 years.
authors.affiliation: Else Kröner-Fresenius-Center for Nutritional Medicine, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brunner
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Much
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Knoeferl
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kratzsch
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Amann-Gassner
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Bader
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hauner
mesh_terms: D052242:Adiponectin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D001823:Body Composition; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D020738:Leptin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D015430:Weight Gain
chemical_list: D052242:Adiponectin; D020738:Leptin
keywords: Adipokines; adiponectin; body composition; breast milk; leptin; weight gain