文本框: LEPTIN CONCENTRATON IN HUMAN MILK AND ITS POTENTIAL ROLE IN NEONATAL ADAPTATION BEN XM, QIN YM, WU SM, ZHANG WL Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai, China Objective: To determine leptin concentration in human milk, and its relationships with infant plasma leptin concentrations. Methods: Venous blood samples were obtained from 73 cases of 3-7 day-old healthy infants, 42 of them were breast-feeding, and 31 of them were formula-feeding. Breast milk samples were collected just before suckling, and skim milk were prepared by centrifugation, all the milk were sonicated before radio-immuno-assay. Radio-immuno-assay was used to detect leptin concentration. Results: Human milk contains immuno-reactive leptin, and the immuno-reactive leptin is present in whole milk at 5 to 10-fold higher concentrations than skim milk. It was also demonstrated that plasma leptin concentration in breast-feeding infants is higher than that in formula-feeding infants. Conclusion: Leptin is present in human milk, which may be conjugated with milk fat globules. In neonates both nutrients and regulatory factors, such as leptin, are transferred from the mother to infant blood via milk, which may play a role in the adaptive responses of the newborn. 0992