Influence of Breastfeeding Time on Caloric Composition and IL-10 and TNF-α Cytokines, Fatty Acids, and Triacylglycerol in Human Milk Colostrum in Previous, Intermediate, and Posterior Milk

The composition of human milk (HM) includes changes under the influence of factors such as genetics, stage of lactation, time of day, and even breastfeeding time. However, the authors are not aware of studies that evaluated the influence of breastfeeding time on fatty acid composition and cytokine. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of breastfeeding time (previous, intermediate, posterior milk) on kilocalorie concentration, fatty acid (FA) composition, and concentration of the cytokines interleukin-10 (IL-10), interferon factors for necrotic tumor (TNF-α) in HM colostrum. The results showed that the concentration of kilocalories was higher in posterior milk than in the previous, the composition of the main fatty acids found in the samples was influenced by the breastfeeding time, and the concentration of IL-10 and TNF-α was influenced in all samples with exception to mother 2. The principal component analysis explained 71% of the variances in the results. Thus, we concluded that the breastfeeding time is a factor that influences the concentration of kilocalories, and if it is necessary to use a more caloric milk, it is recommended to use the posterior milk; the FAs composition and the evaluated cytokines were also influenced by the breastfeeding time.