In vivo endogenous proteolysis yielding beta-casein derived bioactive beta-casomorphin peptides in the human breast milk for infant nutrition

Over 166 million years ago, the key mammalian characteristic of copious milk secretion evolved to provide nutrition, immunological protection and developmental programming for newborns [1-3]. The role of milk is to feed newborns with nutritional proteins, lipids and carbohydrate, as well as minerals, vitamins and water [4, 5]. In addition to its role in nutrition, milk also has important biological functions including digestion, regulation and uptake of other nutrients [6, 7], protection against pathogenic bacteria [8], opioid-like activity [9], cognitive development [10] and immunomodulation [11, 12].
Source: Nutrition - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: research