Mother’s Milk May Reduce Intestinal Injury after Bone Marrow Transplant

Can human breast milk lower intestinal injury following a bone marrow transplant (BMT)? Yes, mother's milk was associated with decreased markers of intestinal inflammation and could be a valuable adjunct for patients after BMT.

Human breast milk can reduce intestinal injury following a bone marrow transplant (BMT), reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in Breastfeeding Medicine.//

A new pilot study compared the use of human breast milk to formula in children less than 5 years of age who underwent a bone marrow transplant (BMT), measuring the levels of inflammatory and pro-inflammatory biomarkers in the stool and blood to assess inflammatory injury to the intestinal microbiome.

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‘Administration of mother's milk resulted in decreased markers of intestinal inflammation and could be a valuable supplement for patients after bone marrow transplant (BMT).’

The results, indicating that human milk was associated with decreased markers of inflammation and injury in the stool, are reported in an article published in Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

The high doses of chemotherapy and radiation administered before BMT initiate a cascade of events - including the release of cytokines such as interferons and interleukins - that can damage the lining of the intestines and alter the make-up of the intestinal microbiome. These and other changes involving T-cell activation can lead to the early stages of graft-versus-host-disease.

Pooja Khandelwal, MD, and coauthors from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (OH) and Prolacta Bioscience (Duarte, CA) designed a study in which the children undergoing BMT receiving human milk or formula beginning three days before and continuing for two weeks after the procedure.

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Preferred Term is Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In this stem cell from bone marrow are injected into a recipient after treating them with growth factor.

In addition to differences in inflammatory and intestinal injury markers, the article entitled "A Pilot Study of Human Milk to Reduce Intestinal Inflammation After Bone Marrow Transplant" also showed lower levels of various intestinal viruses and bacteria in the stool samples of children receiving human milk compared to those receiving formula.

"While only a pilot study, it has the potential of being a stimulus for proper prospective randomized studies that will explore the value of human milk as adjuvant therapy in the management of all transplants," says Arthur I. Eidelman, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Breastfeeding Medicine.

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Source-Eurekalert

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