Longitudinal changes in lactoferrin concentrations in human and bovine milk – a global systematic review

Human milk offers nutritional and immunological advantages through various proteins throughout lactation. Relative to other proteins, lactoferrin is the second most abundant, and is well known for exerting antimicrobial effects. We report a global, comprehensive evaluation of the literature on the quantitative changes in lactoferrin levels in term and preterm human milk, as well as bovine milk, through lactation. This review also focused on methodologies used to quantitate lactoferrin. After critical evaluation of 94 articles, 52 research papers representing 2724 subjects were included. Sixteen articles were critically evaluated for bovine milk, of which 6 were included. The F‐test and ANOVA were used to analyze the effects of gestational age, lactation stage, geographical region, and method of analysis. Not surprisingly throughout lactation, there was a significantly lower amount of lactoferrin present in bovine versus human milk. In human milk, lactoferrin was highest during early lactation and rapidly declined thereafter to remain relatively unchanged from 1 month to 2 years of lactation. Regional differences were not observed when stage of lactation was considered. There was a paucity of data on preterm milk. This comprehensive dataset emphasizes the complexity of human milk composition and its superiority as a source of nutrition for infants.