Abstract

Every year, thousands of infants are born prematurely (before the completion of 37 weeks of gestation). These preterm infants have immature gastrointestinal tract and immune system, which lead to high risks of infection, sepsis, and intestinal inflammation with high mortality rate. In particular, 3-15% of very low birth weight preterm infants suffer from the most servere form of intestinal inflammation, known as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). This disease is incurable with a high mortality rate of 15-30%.

Mother’s breast milk consists of different bioactive constituents, and is recommended as the most optimal diet for preterm infants to prevent the development of NEC. However, it is commonly insufficient or delayed. Consumption of other substitues, such as infant formula, unfortunately increases the risk of NEC in preterm infants. The production of infant formula often includes several steps of thermal processing, which are known to decrease/abolish bioactivity of milk constituents. This may explain for high NEC incidence in formula-fed preterm infants.

We therefore in this PhD project investigated whether gentle thermal processing conditions increase the bioavailability of infant formula. Thereafter, bioactive milk components which were preserved in gently-processed infant formula were selected for further investigation of their immunomodulatory activity in cell and preterm pig models. We hope this project will contribute to the research on the development of new generation of infant formula to protect preterm infants agaisnt intestinal inflammation and NEC.