"...but in a petri dish, breast milk kills cancer cells, said Tully of the
milk bank association."
"Anyone out there who can cite these studies?"
Not sure which specific studies Tully cited but Lois Arnold cited studies by
Hakansson when she gave a presentation on human milk banking here in The
Netherlands. I've just done a quick pubMed search (using Hakansson AND
apoptosis) and found the following:
Adv Exp Med Biol 2002;503:125-32
Hamlet--a complex from human milk that induces apoptosis in tumor cells but
spares healthy cells.
Svensson M, Duringer C, Hallgren O, Mossberg AK, Hakansson A, Linse S,
Svanborg C.
Eur J Biochem 2001 Jan;268(1):186-91 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut
A folding variant of human alpha-lactalbumin induces mitochondrial
permeability transition in isolated mitochondria.
Kohler C, Gogvadze V, Hakansson A, Svanborg C, Orrenius S, Zhivotovsky B.
It's interesting stuff! Guys, check this out via pub med! This is the study
quoted by Arnold and its FREE via pubMed link to Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A :
Here's the direct link:
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/92/17/8064
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1995 Aug 15;92(17):8064-8
Apoptosis induced by a human milk protein.
Hakansson A, Zhivotovsky B, Orrenius S, Sabharwal H, Svanborg C.
Department of Medical Microbiology, Lund University, Sweden.
To the breast-fed infant, human milk is more than a source of nutrients; it
furnishes a wide array of molecules that restrict microbes, such as
antibodies, bactericidins, and inhibitors of bacterial adherence. However,
it has rarely been considered that human milk may also contain substances
bioactive toward host cells. While investigating the effect of human milk on
bacterial adherence to a human lung cancer cell line, we were surprised to
discover that the milk killed the cells. Analysis of this effect revealed
that a component of milk in a particular physical state--multimeric
alpha-lact-albumin--is a potent Ca(2+)-elevating and apoptosis-inducing
agent with broad, yet selective, cytotoxic activity. Multimeric
alpha-lactalbumin killed all transformed, embryonic, and lymphoid cells
tested but spared mature epithelial elements. These findings raise the
possibility that milk contributes to mucosal immunity not only by furnishing
antimicrobial molecules but also by policing the function of lymphocytes and
epithelium. Finally, analysis of the mechanism by which multimeric
alpha-lactalbumin induces apoptosis in transformed epithelial cells could
lead to the design of antitumor agents.
Sara Bernard,
The Netherlands
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