Antibacterial Response in Human Breast Milk.

Dr. Rao Papineni

PACT & Health Branford, USA
Email: papineni@graduate.hku.hk

Presentation at September 18, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM Human milk apart from contributing to the growing nutritional requirements of infant also influences the infant immune system along with a degree of protection against pathogens. In addition, milk components are also postulated to play a major defense role in lactating breast against conditions such as mastitis. Substantial amounts of macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes along with epithelial and stem cells exist not only in colostrum, but also in mature milk. Further, milk is also a good source of microbes required to colonize the babies gut and likely play a role in the maturation of the infants immune system. The bacterial genera include Weissella, Leuconostoc, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Lactococcus. The early response towards staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) by the components in the breast milk is evaluated here in situ. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity was monitored real-time using L-012 (8amino-5-chloro-7-phenylpyridol [3,4-d]pyridazine-1,4(2H,3H) dione), a chemiluminescence

reporter. Mature breast milk collected from lactating caucasian mother at different days were challenged with S.aureus along with the ROS reporter. Luminescence resulting from the antibacterial activity of the breast milk, possible through the action of the polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) within, is imaged real-time with the entire cellular, microbiome, and other milk components. Such methodologies described will be useful to assess the physical status of the breast milk especially when utilizing as a source for stem cells.