Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland.
Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Institute of Experimental Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Warsaw, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Dec 23;19(1):37. doi: 10.3390/ijms19010037.
Breast milk is a natural food and important component of infant nutrition. Apart from the alimentary substances, breast milk contains many important bioactive compounds, including endogenous microRNA molecules (miRNAs). These regulatory molecules were identified in various mammalian biological fluids and were shown to be mostly packed in exosomes. Recently, it was revealed that plant food-derived miRNAs are stably present in human blood and regulate the expression of specific human genes. Since then, the scientific community has focused its efforts on contradicting or confirming this discovery. With the same intention, qRT-PCR experiments were performed to evaluate the presence of five plant food-derived miRNAs (miR166a, miR156a, miR157a, miR172a and miR168a) in breast milk (whole milk and exosomes) from healthy volunteers. In whole milk samples, all examined miRNAs were identified, while only two of these miRNAs were confirmed to be present in exosomes. The plant miRNA concentration in the samples ranged from 4 to 700 fM. Complementary bioinformatics analysis suggests that the evaluated plant miRNAs may potentially influence several crucial biological pathways in the infant organism.
母乳是一种天然食物，也是婴儿营养的重要组成部分。除了营养物质外，母乳还含有许多重要的生物活性化合物，包括内源性 microRNA 分子（miRNAs）。这些调节分子在各种哺乳动物的生物体液中被鉴定出来，并被证明主要包裹在外泌体中。最近，人们发现植物源性 miRNA 稳定存在于人类血液中，并调节特定人类基因的表达。从那时起，科学界就致力于反驳或证实这一发现。出于同样的目的，进行了 qRT-PCR 实验，以评估健康志愿者母乳（全乳和外泌体）中五种植物源性 miRNA（miR166a、miR156a、miR157a、miR172a 和 miR168a）的存在。在全乳样本中，鉴定出了所有检测到的 miRNA，而只有两种 miRNA 被证实存在于外泌体中。样本中植物 miRNA 的浓度范围为 4 到 700 fM。互补的生物信息学分析表明，评估的植物 miRNA 可能潜在地影响婴儿体内的几个关键生物学途径。
