What is the role of lactoferrin?

Lactoferrin helps regulate how well iron is absorbed into the body from the intestine. It also seems to protect against infections from bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Lactoferrin seems to slow down the growth of bacteria by starving them of nutrients. It also destroys the walls around the bacteria.

How does lactoferrin stimulate the immune system?

Lactoferrin is also known to exert changes on leukocytes of the innate immune system, through increasing natural killer (NK) cell activity [87,88], promoting function of neutrophils by enhancing phagocytic activity and modifying production of reactive oxygen species [89–91], and activating macrophages through …

What is the meaning of lactoferrin?

Listen to pronunciation. (LAK-toh-fayr-in) A protein that is found in milk, tears, mucus, bile, and some white blood cells and is being studied in the treatment and prevention of cancer. It is involved in fighting against infection and inflammation and it acts as an antioxidant.

Does lactoferrin increase iron levels?

Lactoferrin is a critical regulator of iron absorption and oxidative stress. The present results showed that the combination of oral lactoferrin and iron injection is a more effective method to improve iron level, enhance antioxidant ability and modulate the cytokine activity in the suckling piglets.

How does lactoferrin prevent the growth of bacteria?

Lactoferrin can inhibit the pathogen from binding to the host by binding to the lipopolysaccharide of the bacterial wall, ultimately resulting in bacterial cell lysis. Lactoferrin promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria with low iron requirements, such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.

How does lactoferrin help anemia?

Ferrous sulphate is the most commonly used treatment for iron deficiency anemia. Lactoferrin is a new generation oral iron that has long been recognized as a member of the transferrin family of proteins and an important regulator of the levels of free iron in the body fluids and has the ability to enhance iron binding.

Lactoferrin’s primary role is to sequester free iron, and in doing so remove essential substrate required for bacterial growth. Antibacterial action of lactoferrin is also explained by the presence of specific receptors on the cell surface of microorganisms.

What means if Lactoferrin is positive in my stool?

Lactoferrin. When there is inflammation in the digestive tract, neutrophils are attracted to the area and release lactoferrin, increasing the level of the protein in the stool. This test measures the level of lactoferrin in stool as a way to detect inflammation in the intestines.

What does a positive lactoferrin test indicate?

Lactoferrin is a marker for fecal leukocytes and a positive result is an indicator of intestinal inflammation. This elevation may be caused by acute infectious colitis or active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The test may not be appropriate in immunocompromised persons.

What does lactoferrin mean?

Lactoferrin (LF) is a transferrin family member of glycoproteins. Bovine lactoferrin, for example, determines higher resistance against bacterial infection in the rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Sakai et al., 1993) and increases non-specific immunity and disease resistance in Asian catfish Clarias batrachus (Kumari et al., 2003).