Insights from 4D Label-Free Proteomic Analysis into Variation of Milk Fat Globule Membrane Proteins of Human Milk Associated with Infant’s Gender

Milk fat globule membrane (MFGM)
protein profiles of breast milk
collected from women in northeast China with male or female babies
were investigated using a four-dimensional (4D) label-free proteomic
technique. Altogether, 2538 proteins were detected and quantified
and 249 were differentially expressed, with 198 decreased proteins
compared to the samples of mothers with female babies. Different proteins
associated with infant’s gender were principally located in
nuclear. The differentially expressed proteins were mainly involved
in gene ontology (GO) functions of the cellular process, binding,
and cell and found to be distributed in lipid-related biological processes
and molecular functions to a large extent. The pathway of neurodegeneration-multiple
disease ranked top for the altered proteins. The screened proteins
were observed to contain some proteins related to typical functions
of immunity, lipid metabolism, digestion, and growth and development.
114 proteins formed a relatively compact network (269 interactions)
and dolichyl-diphospho-oligosaccharide–protein glycosyltransferase
subunit 2 interacted the most with other proteins as the hub protein.
MFGM proteins of breast milk were affected by the sex of offspring,
and these findings may provide useful information for reasonable adjustments
of infant formula powder specifically for boys or girls in the market.