The association of pre-pregnancy BMI on leptin, ghrelin, adiponectin and insulin-like growth factor-1 in breast milk: a case–control study

Abstract

Abstract The nutrient composition of breast milk alters during lactation, and maternal BMI adds more intricacy into its complexity. We aimed to compare leptin, ghrelin, adiponectin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels of pre-feed and post-feed breast milk in mothers with obesity and normal weight, and tried to determine their effects on infants’ growth over weight for length z-score. Twenty obese and twenty normal weight mothers with 2-month-old infants were enrolled in this case–control study. Five millilitre pre-feed breast milk and 5 ml post-feed breast milk were collected. Breast milk leptin, ghrelin, adiponectin and IGF-1 were measured by commercial kits. The pre-feed breast milk of mothers with obesity had significantly higher levels of ghrelin than mothers with normal weight (P = 0·025), whereas the post-feed breast milk of mothers with normal weight had higher levels of adiponectin than the mothers with obesity (P = 0·010). No significant differences were observed in leptin and IGF-1 levels between the two groups. Post-feed breast milk IGF-1 levels of mothers with obesity were correlated with infant’s weight for length z-score at 2 months (r −0·476; P = 0·034). In linear regression models, parity affected the ghrelin in pre-feed breast milk (P = 0·025). Our results revealed that maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was associated with breast milk components.