Importance of insulin content in infant diet: suggestion for a new infant formula.

Oral insulin promotes intestinal maturation and may prevent diabetes in animal models. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentration of insulin in human milk and in different infant formulas. Our results show that the concentration of insulin in human milk is significantly higher (60.23 +/- 41.05 microU/ml mean +/- SD) compared with cow's milk (16.32 +/- 5.98 microU/ml mean +/- SD) and that insulin is hardly detectable in infant formulas. We propose the addition of human insulin to infant formula to match its composition more closely to human milk.