Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2021; 27(33): 5566-5574
Published online Sep 7, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i33.5566
Adiponectin and the regulation of gastric content volume in the newborn rat
Huanhuan Wang, Paul Esemu-Ezewu, Jingyi Pan, Julijana Ivanovska, Estelle B Gauda, Jaques Belik
Huanhuan Wang, Paul Esemu-Ezewu, Jingyi Pan, Julijana Ivanovska, Estelle B Gauda, Department of Paediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto M5G 1X8, Ontario, Canada
Jaques Belik, Department of Paediatrics and Physiology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto M5G 1X8, Ontario, Canada
Author contributions: Wang H, Esemu-Ezewu P, Pan J and Ivanovska J performed the experiments, acquired and analyzed the data and contributed to drafting the manuscript; Gauda EB and Belik J designed, coordinated the study and finalized the manuscript.
Supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research, No. CIA310955.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures were conducted in accordance with the Canadian Animals for Research Act and Canadian Council on Animal Care regulations, and the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute Animal Care Committee approved the study, No. 1000046424.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at jaques.belik@sickkids.ca.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jaques Belik, FRCP (C), MD, Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Physiology, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Ave, Toronto M5G 1X8, Ontario, Canada. jaques.belik@sickkids.ca
Received: March 9, 2021
Peer-review started: March 9, 2021
First decision: May 1, 2021
Revised: May 12, 2021
Accepted: August 12, 2021
Article in press: August 12, 2021
Published online: September 7, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Oral intake depends on the gastric ability to accommodate the food bolus. The preterm infant has a lower gastric capacity, normalized to body weight, when compared with adults, thus potentially limiting their milk intake. Yet, we previously shown that one-week rat pups milk intake is greater than observed, as they mature.

Research motivation

The main rationale for the study experiments was to understand the mechanism accounting for greater food accommodation early in life.

Research objectives

The main objective was to evaluate the hypothesis that the adiponectin in breast milk increases the newborn rat ability to accommodate the food bolus by reducing the fundic muscle tone.

Research methods

Rat freshly dispersed smooth muscle cells were used to measure the adiponectin effect on carbachol-induced fundic muscle shortening.

Research results

Adiponectin significantly reduced the carbachol-stimulated smooth muscle cells shortening independently of age, via large-conductance Ca2+ sensitive K+ channel activation.

Research conclusions

Breast milk containing adiponectin regulates the newborn rat milk intake by increasing the gastric fundic accommodation potential.

Research perspectives

Maternal-neonatal interaction via breast milk components content provides a novel and likely important regulatory role on intake volume early in life.