Human Breast Milk: Bioactive Components, from Stem Cells to Health Outcomes.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Breast milk (BM) is a peculiar fluid owing unique properties and resulting the ideal food during early neonatal period. As widely known, it can improve the outcome of both neonate and lactating mother, influencing their whole life. BM is characterized by several beneficial components; among these, a great role is played by BM own and specific microbiome, deeply investigated in many studies. Moreover, the use of metabolomics in BM analysis allowed a better characterization of its metabolic pathways that vary according to lactation stage and neonatal gestational age. The aim of this review is to describe growth factors, cytokines, immunity mediators, and stem cells (SCs) contained in BM and investigate their functions and effects on neonatal outcome, especially focusing on immuno- and neurodevelopment.

RECENT FINDINGS: We evaluated recent and updated literature on this field. The article that we analyzed to write this review have been found in MEDLINE using breast milk-derived stem cells, biofactors, growth factors, breastfeeding-related outcomes, neurodevelopment, and neonatal immunological system as keywords. Discovering and characterizing BM components could result very useful to clarify the pathophysiology of their influence on neonatal growth and even to improve artificial formulations' composition. Moreover, since SCs abilities and their involvement in the development of several diseases, they could help to discover specific targets for new therapies. It could be useful to characterize BM-derived SC markers, properties, and variations during lactation stages, to understand their potential role in therapeutic applications, since they could be noninvasively isolated from BM. More studies will help to describe more in detail the characteristics of mother-to-child communication through breastfeeding and its potential role in the next future.