They will be famous: Multipotent stem cells in breast milk

Faa G

Primo

;Pichiri G

Secondo

;Coni P

Validation

;Dessì A

Validation

;Fraschini M;Fanos V.

Ultimo

2025-01-01

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Abstract

Breast milk represents the gold standard for neonatal nutrition, especially for preterm and term infants with a low birthweight. This awareness is based not only on the nutritional properties of human milk, which is specifically designed for the growth of humans but also on breast milk’s non-nutritional properties, such as protection against infection. In fact, breast milk should be considered a heterogeneous ecosystem, including a wide range of cells in addition to those involved in immune function; growth factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor; multiple noncoding microRNAs; immune cells; epithelial cells and multipotent mesenchymal stem cells. This recent identification of a pool of progenitor stem cells in human milk is the driving force behind the growing research aimed at identifying the nature of these stem/progenitor cells and their sources.