Transport of 3H-TRH from plasma to rat milk: accumulation and slow degradation in milk and presence of unaltered hormone in gastric content of pups

Digestion of Protein in Premature and Term Infants

Premature birth rates and premature infant morbidity remain discouragingly high. Improving nourishment for these infants is the key for accelerating their development and decreasing disease risk. Dietary protein is essential for growth and development of infants. Studies on protein nourishment for premature infants have focused on protein requirements for catch-up growth, nitrogen balance, and digestive protease concentrations and activities. However, little is known about the processes and products of protein digestion in the premature infant. This review briefly summarizes the protein requirements of term and preterm infants, and the protein content of milk from women delivering preterm and at term. An in-depth review is presented of the current knowledge of term and preterm infant dietary protein digestion, including human milk protease and anti-protease concentrations; neonatal intestinal pH, and enzyme activities and concentrations; and protein fermentation by intestinal bacteria. The advantages and disadvantages of incomplete protein digestion as well as factors that increase resistance to proteolysis of particular proteins are discussed. In order to better understand protein digestion in preterm and term infants, future studies should examine protein and peptide fragment products of digestion in saliva, gastric, intestinal and fecal samples, as well as the effects of the gut micro biome on protein degradation. The confluence of new mass spectrometry technology and new bioinformatics programs will now allow thorough identification of the array of peptides produced in the infant as they are digested.

Hormones in Foods: Presence of Enterostatin-Like Immunoreactivities in Bovine Milk

Enterostatins, pentapeptides (Val-Pro-Asp-Pro-Arg [VPDPR], Val-Pro-Gly-Pro-Arg, Ala-Pro-Gly-Pro- Arg [APGPR], and others) derived from the amino terminus of procolipase, are endogenous to a variety of tissues and body fluids including brain, gut, blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and urine. The administration of exogenous peptides has been shown to elicit a variety of biologic activities, including a decrease in dietary fat preference and pancreatic insulin secretion. Since milk is a rich source of a variety of bioactive substances, especially peptides, we investigated the presence of enterostatin-like immunoreactivity in bovine milk. We measured enterostatins-APGPR and VPDPR-in milk from a herd of 19 cows randomly selected from the Louisiana State University Department of Dairy Science Research Herd in Baton Rouge; the results of this study show a mean peptide concentration in raw milk of 33.7 ± 2.9 ng/ml for APGPR and of 104.5 ± 16.3 ng/ml for VPDPR. A further chromatographic characterization of the nature of APGPR- and VPDPR-like immunoreactivities suggested the endogenous peptides share a common epitope with APGPR or VPDPR but are not APGPR or VPDPR. Unlike APGPR or VPDPR, the endogenous peptides were heat-labile and therefore their values were much lower in pasteurized milk.

Development and heterogeneity of prolactin cells

Prolactin (PRL) is synthesized in pituitary cells called mammotrophs (PRL cells). Ample evidence demonstrates that the PRL cell population consists of structurally and functionally heterogeneous PRL cells. Multiple variants of PRL molecules are found in various species. Prolactin cells may be divided into various subtypes in the rat and mouse. Secretory activities differ among the PRL cell population. These heterogeneities may reflect various phases of the maturation process of PRL cells, or the integrated outcome of various functional differences in PRL cells. To clarify the significance of heterogeneities among PRL cells, we present updated reports on the differentiation, proliferation, and development of PRL cells, and discuss factors responsible for the functional differences in PRL cell population. The age-related alteration in PRL secretion in the rat is summarized, because it is one of the most important aspects of the developmental changes in PRL cells. A mammosomatotroph, which secretes growth hormone and PRL, is found in various species. Prolactin cells and somatotrophs are derived from the same lineage. The possible relationship among PRL cells, somatotrophs, and mammosomatotrophs is discussed.

Biologically active polypeptides in milk

Many biologically active polypeptides have been described in the milk of several species. Various functions for these polypeptides in addition to nutrition have been proposed in the maternal body and in the breast-fed infant. These polypeptides are derived from several sources and multiple factors control their secretion into milk as well as their fate in the mother and infant. An increasing body of evidence supports the concept that they may function physiologically.

An immunoreactive peptide in milk contains bombesin-like bioactivity

Parallel in vitro bioassays using rat uterus and guinea pig large intestine tissues specific for the bombesin family of peptides, demonstrated that the bombesin-like peptides present in bovine milk can produce a dose-related response similar to bombesin and litorin. The bioactivity of this type of milk peptide appeared to be approximately 20-50% as active as the amphibian peptides. These data support the proposal that a bombesin immunoreactive peptide in milk contains bombesin bioactivity.

Immunoreactive and biologically active somatostatin in human and sheep milk

The presence of immunoreactive and biologically active somatostatin in sheep and human milk has been demonstrated. Milk somatostatin exhibits similar chromatographic behavior to that of synthetic somatostatin-14 on both reversed-phase C18 and cation-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography columns. Milk, in contrast to plasma, contains only somatostatin-14-like material. Milk somatostatin was capable of inhibiting the basal and the prostaglandin-induced release of growth hormone from anterior pituitary cell cultures in a pattern similar to synthetic somatostatin-14. The concentrations of the peptide, as determined by radioimmunoassay, were found to be 113 pg/ml in human milk and 150 +/- 4.8 pg/ml (mean +/- range) in sheep milk. These values are severalfold higher than the corresponding concentration of the peptide in the plasma of these species. These findings are analogous to our previous observations concerning two other hypothalamic hormones, luliberin and thyroliberin [Baram, T., Koch, Y., Hazum, E. and Fridkin, M. (1977) Science (Wash. DC) 198, 300-302]. The high concentration of somatostatin and other neuropeptides in milk implies either an active concentrating mechanism in the mammary gland or an additional extrahypothalamic source for the synthesis and release of these peptides.

A bombesin immunoreactive peptide in milk

Immunoreactivity to the amphibian peptide bombesin was found in instant nonfat dry milk (ca. 0.7 ng/ml) and in the whey of whole or skim bovine milk (ca. 1.2 ng/ml) even after ultracentrifugation. The soluble immunoreactivity was associated with a peptide exhibiting the following characteristics: (i) parallel displacement in an immunoassay using an antiserum recognizing bombesin amino acid residues 5-8; (ii) separation from both gastrin-releasing peptide and amphibian bombesin by gel filtration--the approximate Mr was 3,200; (iii) denaturation in urea, reduction by dithiothreitol, and acetylation by iodoacetamide had no effect on its elution profile by gel-filtration chromatography and the aggregation of added bombesin to milk proteins or peptides was not observed; (iv) reversed-phase HPLC separated milk immunoreactivity from gastrin-releasing peptide and bombesin; (v) digestion by trypsin yielded a smaller immunoreactive peptide fragment, whereas nearly all immunoreactivity was lost by treatment with alpha-chymotrypsin; and (vi) the level of immunoreactivity was unaffected by boiling. These data show that milk is an exogenous source of bombesin-like immunoreactivity, which may account for the increase of gastric acid and gastrointestinal hormone levels after the consumption of milk.

Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone and thyrotropin-releasing hormone in human and bovine milk

Two hypothalamic peptide hormones, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) and thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), have been isolated from human milk and bovine colostrum. Acidified methanolic extracts, prepared from human milk, bovine colostrum and rat hypothalami, as well as synthetic LHRH and TRH markers were subjected to high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The eluates were tested for the presence of LHRH and TRH by specific radioimmunoassays. It was found that milk extracts contain significant amounts of LHRH (3.9 - 11.8 ng/ml) and TRH (0.16 - 0.34 ng/ml), which comigrate with the corresponding marker hormones and with those of hypothalamic origin. The HPLC-purified LHRH from both human and bovine milk was bioactive in a dose-response manner similar to synthetic LHRH.