Protein Profile and Simulated Digestive Behavior of Breast Milk from Overweight and Normal Weight Mothers Sánchez Hernández, Silvia Olalla Herrera, Manuel Human milk MALDI mass spectrometry Body mass index In vitro infant digestion Bioactive proteins Human milk proteins have shown to vary in concentration and distribution through lactation. However, while some regulatory components, such as hormones, have shown associations with regard to the mothers’ body mass index, there is limited information on the possible influence of this condition on the whole protein distribution. The objective of this study was to evaluate the protein profile of human milk from normal weight and overweight or obese mothers to identify differences in protein expression in colostrum, transitional and mature milk. The mass spectrometry analysis showed the ability to class with a high degree of confidence the lactation state and the milk profile according to the mother’s condition. Individual milk samples were subjected to a digestion in vitro model that takes into account the specificities of the gastrointestinal conditions of full-term newborn infants. The digestion products were compared with available data from the digestive contents in newborns. The behavior of the most abundant proteins and the overall peptide generation and survival, showed good correspondence with in vivo data. 2021-05-21T10:05:38Z 2021-05-21T10:05:38Z 2021 journal article Sánchez-Hernández, S.; Théron, L.; Jiménez-Barrios, P.; Olalla-Herrera, M.; Recio, I.; Miralles, B. Protein Profile and Simulated Digestive Behavior of Breast Milk from Overweight and Normal Weight Mothers. Foods 2021, 10, 887. https:// doi.org/10.3390/foods10040887 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/68615 10.3390/foods10040887 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España MDPI