Immunologic components in human milk and allergic diseases with focus on food allergy

Abstract

Human milk contains a wide range of immunomodulatory factors, including immunoglobulins, human milk oligosaccharides, cytokines, microbiome, innate factors and food antigens. Maternal diet can influence the content of human milk as it is well-established that dietary antigens can be secreted in human milk after maternal consumption, but whether these dietary antigens promote tolerance or sensitization in the infant is a subject of debate. This review summarizes the current literature on these immunologically active factors in human milk, including the microbiome, innate factors, and maternal diet-derived dietary antigens in the context of development of allergic diseases, with the focus on food allergy.

Keywords: Breast milk; Breastfeeding; Dietary antigen; Food allergy; Human milk; Immunology of breast milk; Immunology of human milk; Infant allergy.