Assessment of maternal diet inflammatory status and inflammatory markers in human breast milk

Human breast milk is a complex bioactive fluid containing multi-functional components that support many infant physiological functions. Maternal diet has been demonstrated to influence human milk components; however, how maternal diet impacts inflammatory markers in human milk remains unclear. This study investigated the association between maternal dietary inflammatory status, assessed using the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), and the profile of inflammatory markers in breast milk from healthy lactating women, quantified using cytometric bead array. Dietary intake of lactating mothers (n = 101) was assessed using a 24-hr food recall and categorised using the DII as either pro-inflammatory (score > 0) or anti-inflammatory (score 96% of participant human milk samples MCP-1 concentration was weakly associated with DII score (p = 0.025, r 2 −0.23, Spearman correlation). This study is the first to investigate the inflammatory index of maternal diets in lactating mothers and characterise inflammatory markers in human milk. Further research is required to fully elucidate the relationship between dietary inflammatory status and inflammatory markers in breast milk and their potential impact on infant health, especially of a more diverse cohort.