Table 1 Breast milk hormones.
From: Breast Milk Hormones and Their Protective Effect on Obesity
| Hormone | Year of discovery | Receptor | Detection of receptor in intestine | Main functions | Year of discovery in breast milk | Method of detection in breast milk | Detection in umbilical cord blood |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leptin | 1994 | Ob-receptor | In humans [17] | Anorexigenic effect | 1997 | RIA [1, 18], ELISA [16] | [12, 19, 20] |
| Adiponectin | 1995 | Adipo-R1 Adipo-R2 | In humans [21] | Improvement of insulin sensitivity, increase in fatty acid metabolism, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic properties | 2006 | RIA [2], ELISA [22] | [20] |
| Ghrelin | 1999 | Growth hormone secretagogue receptor -1a | In humans [23] | Orexigenic action; stimulation of GH secretion; stimulation of acid gastric secretion and motility | 2006 | RIA [4, 24] | [25] |
| IGF-I | 1950 | IR IGF-IR IGF-IIR Insulin receptor-related receptor IR-IGF-IR hybrid receptor | In humans [26] | Primary mediator of growth hormone effects; role in the regulation of postnatal human growth from late infancy onward | 1984 | RIA [3] | Ibáñez L et al., 2008; Lagiou P et al., 2009 |
| Resistin | 2001 | Unknown | Unknown | Regulation of insulin sensitivity | 2008 | ELISA [6] | [27] |
| Obestatin | 2005 | GPR39 | In mice [28] | Anorexigenic effect? | 2008 | RIA [5] | Unknown? |