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A study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine identified shared molecular patterns in human milk that link maternal nutrition, mammary gland biology and infant growth.

Researchers analyzed thousands of molecular measurements from human milk collected across three geographically and nutritionally diverse populations of mothers. They identified shared patterns in milk composition associated with both maternal nutritional status and infant growth and asked whether these patterns could also provide insight into the functional state of the mammary gland.

Published online Oct. 8 in the journal Science, the study examined this state, which involves three interconnected aspects of mammary gland function: milk synthesis and secretion, epithelial barrier and tissue remodeling, and immune and repair activity. Milk synthesis and secretion describe how mammary cells produce the components of milk and release them into milk; barrier and tissue-remodeling functions regulate what passes between the bloodstream and milk while reshaping the milk-producing tissue; and immune and repair activity helps protect the gland and restore tissue after stress or injury.

By mapping molecular patterns in milk onto these biological processes, the researchers asked not only what is present in milk but also what its composition may reveal about the function of the mammary gland that produces it.

, senior author of the study and an assistant professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, with appointments in the Institute for Systems Genetics, the Department of Microbiology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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