Does drinking infant formula made of cow鈥檚 milk increase the risk of developing type 1 diabetes?
In 1993, a Finnish study found that consuming dairy products early on correlated with diabetes risk. One explanation is that beta-lactoglobulin, a protein in cow鈥檚, but not human, milk prompts babies to make antibodies that also attack glycodelin, a protein vital for training the immune system. The mistuned immune system then mistakenly destroys insulin-producing pancreatic cells, leading to type 1 diabetes.
鈥淭he mistuned immune system mistakenly destroys insulin-producing cells鈥�
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Now Marcia Goldfarb of the company Anatek-EP in Portland, Maine, has found that five children with type 1 diabetes, who were fed cow鈥檚-milk formula, all have antibodies to beta-lactoglobulin (Journal of Proteome Research, ).
Diabetes researchers are cautious, though. 鈥淚t鈥檚 fascinating, but needs more back-up data,鈥� says Mikael Knip of the Hospital for Children and Adolescents in Helsinki, Finland. He is coordinating a large , to test whether children fed formula have a lower risk of disease than those fed the hydrolysed version, in which milk proteins have been broken down.
