Perspectives in Diabetes: Cow's Milk and Type 1 Diabetes The Real Debate Is About Mucosal Immune Function

摘要

The hypothesis that early exposure of the infant to cow's milk (or lack of breast-feeding) predisposes the child to type 1 diabetes dates from the 1980s. It has important implications, but remains controversial because the evidence on which it is based has been indi- rect and is open to criticism. Two meta-analyses of mul- tiple studies in which diabetes prevalence was associated retrospectively with infant feeding revealed only a mar- ginal increase in relative risk. Two recent prospective studies found no apparent association between devel- opment of antibodies to islet antigens and feeding pat- terns in high-risk infants with a first-degree type 1 dia- betic relative.