Comparative Whey Proteome Profiling of Donkey Milk With Human and Cow Milk

Abstract

Donkey milk (DM), similar to human milk (HM) in chemical composition, has been suggested as the best potential hypoallergenic replacement diet for babies suffering from Cow milk (CM) protein allergy. In order to better understand DM protein, many studies based on proteomic have been performed. In this study, the label-free quantitative proteomic approach was conducted to quantitatively identify the differentially expressed whey proteins (DEPs) in DM vs. HM group and DM vs. CM group. In total, 241 and 365 DEPs were found in these two groups, respectively. Bioinformatics analysis of DEPs showed that the majority of DEPs participated in the lipoprotein metabolic process, regulation of cytokine production, chemical homeostasis, and catabolic process. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes (KEGG) pathways analysis found that these DEPs mainly participated in an antigen processing, complement, and coagulation cascades. These results may provide valuable information in the composition of milk whey proteins in DM, HM, and CM, especially for low abundant components, and expand our knowledge of different biological functions between DM and HM or CM.