Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Sep 6;13(17):2837.
doi: 10.3390/foods13172837.

Cow's Milk Bioactive Molecules in the Regulation of Glucose Homeostasis in Human and Animal Studies

Emad Yuzbashian  1 , Emily Berg  2 , Stepheny C de Campos Zani  2 , Catherine B Chan  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Cow's Milk Bioactive Molecules in the Regulation of Glucose Homeostasis in Human and Animal Studies

Emad Yuzbashian et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Obesity disrupts glucose metabolism, leading to insulin resistance (IR) and cardiometabolic diseases. Consumption of cow's milk and other dairy products may influence glucose metabolism. Within the complex matrix of cow's milk, various carbohydrates, lipids, and peptides act as bioactive molecules to alter human metabolism. Here, we summarize data from human studies and rodent experiments illustrating how these bioactive molecules regulate insulin and glucose homeostasis, supplemented with in vitro studies of the mechanisms behind their effects. Bioactive carbohydrates, including lactose, galactose, and oligosaccharides, generally reduce hyperglycemia, possibly by preventing gut microbiota dysbiosis. Milk-derived lipids of the milk fat globular membrane improve activation of insulin signaling pathways in animal trials but seem to have little impact on glycemia in human studies. However, other lipids produced by ruminants, including polar lipids, odd-chain, trans-, and branched-chain fatty acids, produce neutral or contradictory effects on glucose metabolism. Bioactive peptides derived from whey and casein may exert their effects both directly through their insulinotropic effects or renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibition and indirectly by the regulation of incretin hormones. Overall, the results bolster many observational studies in humans and suggest that cow's milk intake reduces the risk of, and can perhaps be used in treating, metabolic disorders. However, the mechanisms of action for most bioactive compounds in milk are still largely undiscovered.

Keywords: dairy; glucose; gut microbiome; incretin; inflammation; insulin; insulin resistance; milk; type 2 diabetes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

C.B.C. has received research funding from the Dairy Farmers of Canada. The funders had no role in in the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish this review. E.B., E.Y. and S.C.d.C.Z. declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A summary of the evidence that bioactive compounds from milk can regulate glucose homeostasis. Abbreviations: BW, body weight; GTT, glucose tolerance test; IR, insulin resistance; AKT, protein kinase B; FBG, fasting blood (plasma) glucose; FM, fat mass; GLUT4, glucose transporter-4. Created with BioRender.com (accessed on 30 August 2024).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. DeFronzo R.A., Ferrannini E. Insulin resistance: A multi-faceted syndrome responsible for NIDDM, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Diabetes Care. 1991;14:173–194. doi: 10.2337/diacare.14.3.173. - DOI - PubMed
    1. DeFronzo R.A., Ferrannini E., Groop L., Henry R.R., Herman W.H., Holst J.J., Hu F.B., Kahn C.R., Raz I., Shulman G.I., et al. Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Nat. Rev. Dis. Prim. 2015;1:15019. doi: 10.1038/nrdp.2015.19. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ruze R., Liu T., Zou X., Song J., Chen Y., Xu R., Yin X., Xu Q. Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Connections in epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatments. Front Endocrinol. 2023;14:1161521. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1161521. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Drouin-Chartier J., Cote J.A., Me L., Brassard D., Tessier-Grenier M., Desroches S., Couture P., Lamarche L. Comprehensive review of the impact of dairy foods and dairy fat on cardiometabolic risk. Adv. Nutr. 2016;7:1041–1051. doi: 10.3945/an.115.011619. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mozaffarian D. Dairy foods, obesity, and metabolic health: The role of the food matrix compared with single nutrients. Adv. Nutr. 2019;10:917S–923S. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmz053. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Grants and funding

No funding was provided for the creation of this review article. Graduate student stipends have been provided as follows: E.Y.—Alberta Diabetes Institute & International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes, Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship; E.B.—Alberta Diabetes Institute and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; S.C.d.C.Z.—Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

LinkOut - more resources