ArticlePloS one2011
Interleukin 7 from maternal milk crosses the intestinal barrier and modulates T-cell development in offspring.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of osteopontin-enriched formula on lymphocyte subsets in the first 6 months of life: a randomized controlled trial.Pediatric research · 2017Trial
- IL-7 in colostrum is associated with atopic dermatitis at 9 months of age: A birth cohort in Japan.Asia Pacific allergy · 2026Article
- Human milk feeding practices and serum immune profiles of one-year-old infants in the CHILD birth cohort study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Observational
- Effects of Low and High Maternal Protein Intake on Fetal Skeletal Muscle miRNAome in Sheep.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- The inflammatory response to birth requires MyD88 and is driven by both mother and offspring.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Article
- Human Breast Milk: The Key Role in the Maturation of Immune, Gastrointestinal and Central Nervous Systems: A Narrative Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Lactoferrin as a Human Genome "Guardian"-An Overall Point of View.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- The Role of microRNAs in the Mammary Gland Development, Health, and Function of Cattle, Goats, and Sheep.Non-coding RNA · 2021Review
- Immunomodulatory Effects of Human Colostrum and Milk.Pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition · 2021Review
- Microbiota Composition of Breast Milk from Women of Different Ethnicity from the Manawatu-Wanganui Region of New Zealand.Nutrients · 2020Article
- Breast milk interleukin-7 and thymic gland development in infancy.European journal of nutrition · 2020Article
- Review
- The Function and Alteration of Immunological Properties in Human Milk of Obese Mothers.Nutrients · 2019Review
- Maternal Helminth Infection Is Associated With Higher Infant Immunoglobulin A Titers to Antigen in Orally Administered Vaccines.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2016Article
- microRNAs and the mammary gland: A new understanding of gene expression.Genetics and molecular biology · 2013Review
- Immunology of pediatric HIV infection.Immunological reviews · 2013Review
- Human milk composition: nutrients and bioactive factors.Pediatric clinics of North America · 2013Review
- IL-7: the global builder of the innate lymphoid network and beyond, one niche at a time.Seminars in immunology · 2012Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBreastfeeding protects against illnesses and death in hazardous environments, an effect partly mediated by improved immune function. One hypothesis suggests that factors within milk supplement the inadequate immune response of the offspring, but this has not been able to account for a series of observations showing that factors within maternally derived milk may supplement the development of the immune system through a direct effect on the primary lymphoid organs. In a previous human study we reported evidence suggesting a link between IL-7 in breast milk and the thymic output of infants. Here we report evidence in mice of direct action of maternally-derived IL-7 on T cell development in the offspring. METHODS AND
findingsWe have used recombinant IL-7 labelled with a fluorescent dye to trace the movement in live mice of IL-7 from the stomach across the gut and into the lymphoid tissues. To validate the functional ability of maternally derived IL-7 we cross fostered IL-7 knock-out mice onto normal wild type mothers. Subsets of thymocytes and populations of peripheral T cells were significantly higher than those found in knock-out mice receiving milk from IL-7 knock-out mothers. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our study provides direct evidence that interleukin 7, a factor which is critical in the development of T lymphocytes, when maternally derived can transfer across the intestine of the offspring, increase T cell production in the thymus and support the survival of T cells in the peripheral secondary lymphoid tissue.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.