ReviewNutrients2024
Melatonin in Human Breast Milk and Its Potential Role in Circadian Entrainment: A Nod towards Chrononutrition?
Review in Nutrients, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Feeding Mode Is Associated with Infant Night Sleep Trajectories During the First Postnatal Year.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Fecal melatonin as a biomarker of emerging circadian maturity and gut microbiota in infancy.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Article
- The Circadian Composition of Breast Milk: A Natural Starting Point for Chrononutrition.Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Diurnal rhythms in melatonin and cortisol in very preterm human milk.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- The gut microbiota and sleep in infants: a focus on diurnal rhythmicity patterns.Gut microbes reports · 2026Article
- Blood Melatonin in Breast Milk-Fed Preterm Infants: Longitudinal Biomonitoring to 38 Weeks' Postmenstrual Age (ProMote Study).Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Early-life NOThe Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2025Article
- Selected Protective Mechanisms of Human Milk Against Intestinal Protozoal Infections in Infants.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Melatonin supplementation: new insights into health and disease.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2025Review
- Relevance of Milk Composition to Human Longitudinal Growth from Infancy Through Puberty: Facts and Controversies.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Perinatal Photoperiod Has Long-Term Effects on the Rest-Activity Cycle and Sleep in Male and Female Mice.Journal of biological rhythms · 2025Article
- Colostrum-Derived Melatonin Plus PEG Microspheres Modulate the Oxidative Metabolism of Human Colostrum Phagocytes.Metabolites · 2025Article
- Understanding the interaction between melatonin and bifidobacteria.Microbiome research reports · 2025Article
- The role of light exposure in infant circadian rhythm establishment: A scoping review perspective.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Postnatal Development of the Circadian Rhythmicity of Human Pineal Melatonin Synthesis and Secretion (Systematic Review).Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Breastfeeding is the most appropriate source of a newborn's nutrition; among the plethora of its benefits, its modulation of circadian rhythmicity with melatonin as a potential neuroendocrine transducer has gained increasing interest. Transplacental transfer assures melatonin provision for the fetus, who is devoid of melatonin secretion. Even after birth, the neonatal pineal gland is not able to produce melatonin rhythmically for several months (with an even more prolonged deficiency following preterm birth). In this context, human breast milk constitutes the main natural source of melatonin: diurnal dynamic changes, an acrophase early after midnight, and changes in melatonin concentrations according to gestational age and during the different stages of lactation have been reported. Understudied thus far are the factors impacting on (changes in) melatonin content in human breast milk and their clinical significance in chronobiological adherence in the neonate: maternal as well as environmental aspects have to be investigated in more detail to guide nursing mothers in optimal feeding schedules which probably means a synchronized instead of mistimed feeding practice. This review aims to be thought-provoking regarding the critical role of melatonin in chrononutrition during breastfeeding, highlighting its potential in circadian entrainment and therefore optimizing (neuro)developmental outcomes in the neonatal setting.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.