Insights from 4D Label-Free Proteomic Analysis into Variation of Milk Fat Globule Membrane Proteins of Human Milk Associated with Infant’s Gender

Milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) protein profiles of breast milk collected from women in northeast China with male or female babies were investigated using a four-dimensional (4D) label-free proteomic technique. Altogether, 2538 proteins were detected and quantified and 249 were differentially expressed, with 198 decreased proteins compared to the samples of mothers with female babies. Different proteins associated with infant's gender were principally located in nuclear. The differentially expressed proteins were mainly involved in gene ontology (GO) functions of the cellular process, binding, and cell and found to be distributed in lipid-related biological processes and molecular functions to a large extent. The pathway of neurodegeneration-multiple disease ranked top for the altered proteins. The screened proteins were observed to contain some proteins related to typical functions of immunity, lipid metabolism, digestion, and growth and development. 114 proteins formed a relatively compact network (269 interactions) and dolichyl-diphospho-oligosaccharide-protein glycosyltransferase subunit 2 interacted the most with other proteins as the hub protein. MFGM proteins of breast milk were affected by the sex of offspring, and these findings may provide useful information for reasonable adjustments of infant formula powder specifically for boys or girls in the market.