Presence and possible physiological significance of hormonally active peptides in human and bovine milk
1998
Koldovsky (University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson (USA). Dept. of Pediatrics)
The presence of hormones and hormone-related substances in milk was described more than 50 years ago. Milk of various species contains a number of hormones of a nonpeptide and peptide character as well as several hormonally active peptides. This fact, together with the low proteolytic activities in the gastrointestinal tract of newborns and the existence of a higher "permeability" for macromolecules in neonates, indicate a possible functional role of milk-borne hormonally active peptides. The need to explore their significance in breast milk is stressed since they are missing in many infant formulae. This review concentrates on two aspects, namely, the presence of hormones and hormonally active substances in milk (to be called "hormones" for the sake of brevity in this review), and a detailed discussion of experiments indicating the possible physiological significance of milk-borne peptide hormones for the neonate.
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