Research progress of microRNA in breast milk / 国际儿科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Breast milk is the natural biological template for infants'nutrition.The quality of milk direct-ly affects the growth and development of infants.Breast milk provides not only essential nutrition for infants'growth and development,but various bioactive components,posing an effect on the development of gastrointesti-nal tract,nervous system and immune system of the breastfed infant. In recent years,studies have found that breast milk is one of the richest sources of microRNA(miRNA)compared with other body fluids.The miRNA is a kind of short chain noncoding nucleic acid,regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level.Potential effects of exogenous food-derived microRNAs on gene expression have been demonstrated,together with the sta-bility of milk-derived microRNAs in the gastrointestinal tract.Studies have found miRNA in breast milk is asso-ciated with immunomodulation,can regulate the metabolism and promote the growth and development.This pa-per reviews the absorption mechanisms and potential protection on breast-fed infants of miRNA in breast milk.