The relationships between leptin levels in maternal serum and breast milk of mothers and term infants

Abstract

Background: Leptin in breast milk play a significant role in metabolic programming. Objective: The aim of this study to evaluate the relationship between leptin levels in maternal serum and breast milk, and certain anthropometric measurements of infants and mothers. Methods: This study was conducted with 65 females and term infants. Anthropometric measurements of the mothers and the infants were obtained on the first, third, and sixth months, and leptin levels in maternal serum and breast milk were measured. Results: In this study, leptin levels in breast milk were positively correlated with leptin levels in maternal serum while the leptin levels in breast milk were lower than the serum leptin levels. It was also determined that mothers’ body weights, BMI values, waist and hip circumferences were increased in a statistically significant way in terms of the months (p