The Australian study suggests that maternal diet may subtly shape the immune profile of breast milk, but only one inflammatory marker showed a significant association with dietary inflammatory status.
Study: Evaluation of maternal dietary inflammatory status and inflammatory markers in breast milk. Image credit: Baba.Images/Shutterstock.com
The foods that breastfeeding mothers eat can have a subtle influence on the immune composition of their breast milk, according to a new Australian study that looked at inflammatory markers in breast milk. This study Pro Swan.
Can a mother’s diet influence breast milk inflammation?
Human milk is a complex bioactive fluid containing several important components necessary for infant growth and development, including proteins, fats, growth factors, immune components, human milk oligosaccharides, and microorganisms. In addition to promoting neurological and cognitive development, breast milk supports the development of infant innate immunity through cytokines and chemokines, which are signaling molecules with pro- or anti-inflammatory properties.
It is well known that a mother’s diet influences the composition of breast milk. However, it remains unclear whether maternal dietary patterns influence the concentrations of inflammatory markers such as chemokines and cytokines in breast milk.
Given that these inflammatory markers contribute significantly to infant immune development, researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast assessed the inflammatory status of breastfeeding mothers’ diets and measured the concentrations of 13 inflammatory markers in breast milk samples.
Most inflammatory markers showed no association with diet
A total of 101 mothers who exclusively breastfed their healthy full-term infants 3 to 4 months after the birth of a healthy full-term infant participated in this study. Maternal dietary inflammatory status was assessed using the Dietary Inflammation Index (DII). DII is an evidence-based tool that quantifies the inflammatory potential of a person’s diet based on 45 food parameters. Flow cytometry bead arrays quantified 13 inflammatory markers in breast milk samples.
Dietary analysis revealed that all participants consumed an overall anti-inflammatory diet, with dietary fiber, beta-carotene, and vitamin E having the strongest anti-inflammatory effects. Overall, participants’ food intake was broadly in line with national dietary guidelines for breastfeeding women, although some nutrients, such as energy intake, were below recommended levels.
Quantification of inflammatory markers showed wide variation in detection rates between participants. Only a small proportion of the inflammatory markers tested were consistently detected in breast milk samples.
In particular, three chemokines, including interferon gamma-inducible protein 10 (IP-10), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), and interleukin 8 (IL-8), were present at the highest concentrations and detected in more than 96% of breast milk samples.
Correlation analysis between inflammatory markers and dietary inflammatory index scores revealed a weak but significant inverse correlation for MCP-1. None of the other markers showed a significant association with the Dietary Inflammation Index score.
Maternal diet may subtly influence breast milk immunity
In this cohort of healthy lactating women with a predominantly anti-inflammatory dietary pattern, breast milk also exhibited a generally low-inflammatory marker profile.
Rather than showing broad changes across all inflammatory markers, this study identified more specific patterns. Chemokines dominated in breast milk, with IP-10, MCP-1, and IL-8 being the most consistently detected at the highest concentrations. However, of all 13 markers tested, only MCP-1 showed a significant inverse association with maternal dietary inflammatory index scores.
This chemokine-dominated profile may reflect the role of breast milk in supporting neonatal immune development, particularly through chemotactic signaling and immune cell recruitment at mucosal surfaces. Rather than indicating harmful inflammation, this pattern may represent a functionally and physiologically appropriate immune signal tailored to the infant’s gut.
The association between MCP-1 and maternal dietary inflammatory index scores suggests that maternal diet may have subtle effects on certain immune-related components of breast milk. This may have potential downstream protective relevance for infants, although further studies are needed to confirm this relationship.
Consistent detection of IP-10, MCP-1, and IL-8 also supports the growing interest in breast milk as a potential non-invasive biomarker of immune and inflammatory status in lactating mothers.
Study design limits broad conclusions about maternal diet
The findings should be interpreted with caution. This study included healthy breastfeeding mothers whose dietary inflammatory index scores reflected a predominantly anti-inflammatory dietary pattern. Without a comparison group of mothers with pro-inflammatory dietary patterns, this result cannot be fully contextualized across a broader health spectrum.
Dietary inflammatory indices also have limitations in this setting. It was originally designed for a global population of adult men and women with various health conditions, rather than a very specific cohort of healthy breastfeeding mothers.
Dietary intake was assessed using a single 24-hour dietary recall, which may be subject to recall bias and may not fully capture participants’ habitual dietary patterns.
Additionally, this study was limited to Australian lactating women, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other populations. The cross-sectional, exploratory design also means that causal conclusions cannot be drawn.
Therefore, larger studies involving more demographically, socio-economically and culturally diverse cohorts are needed to better understand how maternal dietary patterns shape the inflammatory environment in breast milk.
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