Influence of Prolonged Storage Process, Pasteurization, and Heat Treatment on Biologically-active Human Milk Proteins

Abstract

Various freezing/heating/pasteurization processes applied to human milk prior to delivery to neonates could affect the concentration of immunomodulatory proteins, especially lactoferrin, secretory immunoglobulin A, and lysozyme. Leptin was unaffected by the various handling processes tested. Fresh milk was found to be the best food for neonates. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the functional activity of these proteins and their effects on infants' immunological status.

Effect of high pressure and heat treatments on IgA immunoreactivity and lysozyme activity in human milk

“…Our results are in accordance with some previously obtained for LTLT pasteurization, which indicated losses of concentration of immunoreactive IgA between 52 and 64 % [15,19,28,29]. However, other studies have presented a lower IgA reduction, ranging between 20 and 40 % [11,12,18,20], and no losses were reported by other authors [22].…”

“…Treatments of higher intensity significantly decreased lysozyme activity. The maintenance of lysozyme activity after LTLT pasteurization of human milk observed in this study is comparable with the finding of earlier studies [11,13,32,33]. However, significant inactivation of lysozyme after LTLT pasteurization, between 20 and 60 %, has been also reported for human milk [12,15,20,22].…”

“…This treatment is mandatory to ensure microbial safety, and the banks use low-temperature long-time (LTLT) pasteurization, also called holder pasteurization, which consists of applying a temperature not below 62.5 °C in a water bath for 30 min. However, many studies have shown that this thermal treatment can degrade key immunological components of milk, and therefore, LTLT pasteurization may not result adequate for human milk, where the retention of bioactive proteins is highly desirable for preterm and sick babies [11,12].…”

Factors influencing gastrointestinal tract and microbiota immune interaction in preterm infants

“…Preterm infants require tube feeding and are either fed fresh expressed, frozen, and sometimes pasteurized donor human milk. Milk storage and processing affects bioactive compounds, but still donor pasteurized human milk appears to provide protection from NEC when compared to formula (59,60).…”

Safe management of expressed breast milk: A systematic review

“…[42][43][44] Storage of EBM at À20 8C lowered activity of the following immunological components (peroxidase, immunoglobulin A, lactoferrin, muramidase, lactroperoxidase, and lysozomes). 42,44 Increased bacterial activity appears to be associated with reductions in the activity of these components of EBM. 42 This has clinical relevance for decisions around length of storage and use of EBM which has been frozen.…”