Published online Sep 7, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i33.5566
Peer-review started: March 9, 2021
First decision: May 1, 2021
Revised: May 12, 2021
Accepted: August 12, 2021
Article in press: August 12, 2021
Published online: September 7, 2021
Processing time: 178 Days and 10.8 Hours
Oral intake depends on the gastric ability to accommodate the food bolus. The preterm infant has a lower gastric capacity, normalized to body weight, when compared with adults, thus potentially limiting their milk intake. Yet, we previously shown that one-week rat pups milk intake is greater than observed, as they mature.
The main rationale for the study experiments was to understand the mechanism accounting for greater food accommodation early in life.
The main objective was to evaluate the hypothesis that the adiponectin in breast milk increases the newborn rat ability to accommodate the food bolus by reducing the fundic muscle tone.
Rat freshly dispersed smooth muscle cells were used to measure the adiponectin effect on carbachol-induced fundic muscle shortening.
Adiponectin significantly reduced the carbachol-stimulated smooth muscle cells shortening independently of age, via large-conductance Ca2+ sensitive K+ channel activation.
Breast milk containing adiponectin regulates the newborn rat milk intake by increasing the gastric fundic accommodation potential.
Maternal-neonatal interaction via breast milk components content provides a novel and likely important regulatory role on intake volume early in life.