Sepideh Moradkhani
Mohammad Mahdi Mohammadi
Fatemeh Minoochehr
Matin Vesaltalab
Seddighe Amini Ranjbar
Mohammad Reza Baneshi
Farhad Seif
Majid Khoshmirsafa

Abstract

Introduction:

Chronic diarrhea (CD) is one of the major diseases frequently occur during infancy worldwide. The effects of various substances in breast milk on preventing inflammatory diseases such as chronic diarrhea are not fully elucidated. This study aimed to determine the concentration of inflammatory cytokines, including interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and anti-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13) through the mothers’ breast milk feeding the infants with and without CD.

Material and Methods:

Breast milk samples were obtained from 45 mothers feeding the infants with CD as the case group and 45 mothers feeding the healthy infants without CD (or any other inflammatory diseases) as the control group. The concentration of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines of breast milk was measured using ELISA technique.

Results:

The mean of IL-13 concentration was significantly reduced in the case group compared to the control group (p<0.001). Whereas the mean of IL-4 concentration was significantly increased in the CD group in comparison to the control group (p=0.001).

Conclusion:

The results indicated a lower IL-13 concentration and a higher IL-4 concentration in the mothers feeding the infants with CD. Therefore, low IL-13 as an anti-inflammatory cytokine in breast milk may be capable of predisposing the infants to CD. On the other hand, inflammatory cytokines may promote the immunity of infants with CD.

Keywords:

breastfeeding, chronic diarrhea, cytokines, infant

VOLUME

7

,

ISSUE

3
December 2019

Correspondence

Mohammad Mahdi Mohammadi

Email

mmmohamadi@razi.tums.ac.ir

Received

Accepted

Published

Suggested Citation

DOI

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Non-Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). License