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Milk Fat Globule Membrane: Clinical Evidence
MFGM BREASTMILK’S BIG Secret MFGM BREASTMILK’S BIG Secret

The body of evidence on MFGM and MFGM components is expanding

Scientific publications on MFGM or its components are increasing in recent times.

The clinical studies involved both paediatric and adult populations, and evaluated the effects of MFGM or its components largely on brain, immune and gut functions.

Histogram of clinical and preclinical studies on MFGM and its components by function (brain, gut, immune)

Supplementation of MFGM or its components in the paediatric population has been clinically shown to be safe and beneficial in brain development, immune health and gut health.

Health Outcomes
Publication Population Intervention Follow up duration Outcome
Zavaleta et al 2011 Infants (6-11 mo) MFGM 6 Months
  • Reduced bloody diarrhoea
Gurnida et al 2012 Infants (2-8 wo) MFGM 6 Months
  • Improved head and eye coordination, performance and general IQ scores of GMDS
  • Higher serum ganglioside level
Veereman-Wauters et al 2012 Children (4.4 yo) MFGM 4 Months
  • Shorter febrile episodes
  • Improved behaviour regulation
Tanaka et al 2013 Premature infants with low birth weight Sphingomyelin 18 Months
  • Improved behaviour score of BSID-II
  • Improved Fagan test scores
  • Improved latency of visual evoked potentials
  • Improved sustained attention test
Billeaud et al 2014 Infants (14 do) MFGM 14 Weeks
  • Well tolerated
Poppitt et al 2014 Infants (8-24 mo) Complex milk lipids 12 Weeks
  • Shorter rotavirus diarrhoea duration
Timby et al 2014 Infants (<2 mo) MFGM 12 Months
  • Improved cognitive scores of BSID-III
Timby et al 2015 Infants (<2 mo) MFGM 12 Months
  • Reduced antipyretic use
  • Reduced acute otitis media risk
Li F et al 2019 Infants MFGM + Lactoferrin 365 Days
  • Improved cognitive, language and motor scores of BSID-III
  • Improved personal-social score on ASQ-3
  • Reduced respiratory and gastrointestinal infections
Li X et al 2019 Infants (21-28 do) MFGM 12 months
  • Fewer episodes and days with fever
  • Safe and well tolerated
Xia et al 2021 Infants(<14 do) MFGM 12 months
  • Improved social-emotional and general adaptive scores of BSID-III
  • Improved short term memory
  • Higher serum ganglioside level
Hedrick et al 2021 Infants (10-14 do) MFGM + iron 12 months
  • Supported adequate growth
  • Supported normal iron status
Teoh et al 2022 Infants (<28 do) MFGM + GOS:FOS(9:1) 4 months
  • Safe & well tolerated
  • Supported adequate growth
Sapulveda-Valbuena 2021 Infants (< 2mo) MFGM + FOS + inulin + Bifidobacterium + lactobacilli + PUFA + gangliosides + nucleosides + sialic acid 18 months
  • Higher head circumference, which could be related to better visual acuity and language development
Jaramillo-Ospina et al 2022 Infants (M120 do) MFGM 24 months
  • Safe
  • Supported typical growth
Jiang et al 2022 Infants (<14 do) MFGM 12 months
  • Safe and well tolerated
Nieto-Ruiz et al 2022 Infants (0-2 mo) MFGM + FOS + inulin + Bifidobacterium + lactobacilli + PUFA + gangliosides + nucleosides + sialic acid 6 years
  • Associated with long term effects on neurocognitive development and brain structure
Nieto-Ruiz et al 2022 Infants (0-2 mo) MFGM + FOS + inulin + Bifidobacterium + lactobacilli + PUFA + gangliosides + nucleosides + sialic acid 2.5 years
  • Fewer behavioural problems
Nieto-Ruiz et al 2022 Infants (0-2 mo) MFGM + FOS + inulin + Bifidobacterium + lactobacilli + PUFA + gangliosides + nucleosides + sialic acid 4 years
  • Associated with beneficial long term effects in language development
do = day old; mo = month old; yo = year old; BSID = Bayley’s Scale of Infant Development; ASQ = Ages & Stages Questionnaire; GMDS = Griffith Mental Development Scale; FOS = fructooligosaccharides; PUFA = polyunsaturated fatty acids
Mechanistic Effects
Publication Population Intervention Follow up duration Outcome
Lee et al 2017 Children (6-11 mo) MFGM 6 months
  • Reversed metabolic abnormalities
Deoni et al 2018 Children (3 mo to 9 yo) MFGM + PUFA + Choline + Sphingomyelin 11 Months
  • Associated with early myelination
Grip 2018 Infants (< 2 mo) MFGM 12 months
  • Higher concentrations of phosphatidylcholines and sphingomyelin
Nieto-Ruiz et al 2019 Infants (0-2 mo) MFGM + FOS + inulin + Bifidobacterium + lactobacilli + PUFA + gangliosides + nucleosides + sialic acid 18 months
  • Prolonged latencies and lower amplitudes of visual evoked potentials
He et al 2019 Infants (<2 mo) MFGM 12 Months
  • Modulated gut microbial activity and function
He et al 2019 Infants (<2 mo) MFGM 12 Months
  • Modulated metabolism
Chichlowski et al 2021 Infants (10-14 do) MFGM + Lactoferrin 4 months
  • Increased Bacteroides species
Zhao et al 2021 Newborn infants MFGM 1 months
  • Supported growth of Bifidobacterium in gut microbiome
Lee et al 2021 Infants (14-28 do) MFGM 12 months
  • Modified serum metabolome
Li X et al 2021 Infants (21-28 do) MFGM 4 months
  • Modulated immunity
Cerdo 2022 Infants (< 2mo) MFGM + FOS + inulin + Bifidobacterium + lactobacilli + PUFA + gangliosides + nucleosides + sialic acid 4 years
  • Modulated gut microbiota maturation

Likewise, supplementation of MFGM or its components in the adult population has been clinically shown to be beneficial largely in cardiovascular risk factors, gut health and mobility.

Publication Population Intervention Follow up duration Outcome
Hellhammer et al 2010 Healthy men (30-55 yo) Milk phospholipids 3 weeks
  • Shorter reaction time of working memory task
  • Blunted psychological stress response at higher stress load
Conway et al 2013,2014 Adults (18-65 yo) MFGM 4 weeks
  • Reduced plasma LDL and triglycerides
  • Reduced angiotensin-I-converting enzyme
  • Reduced systolic blood pressure
Nestel et al 2014 Overweight & obese adults (51-59 yo) High fat dairy diet 4 days
  • Plasma lyso-PC and lyso-PAF positively
  • Correlated with insulin sensitivity and inversely with insulin resistance
Kim et al 2015 Women (>75 yo) MFGM + exercise 3 months
  • Increased frailty reversal rate
  • Improved walking speed
  • Improved serum IGF-1
Ota et al 2015 Women (50-67 yo) MFGM + exercise 10 weeks
  • Faster stepping
  • Increased muscle fibre conduction velocity
Rosqvist et al 2015 Overweight adults (20-70 yo) MFGM 8 weeks
  • Reduced total cholesterol, LDL, Apo B/Apo A-1 ratio
Minegishi et al 2016 Women (60-73 yo) MFGM + exercise 10 weeks
  • Improved chair test time and leg muscles cross section area
  • Increased leg muscle fibre conduction speed
Ten Bruggencate et al 2016 Healthy adults (18-55 yo) MFGM 2 weeks
  • Reduced stool frequency
  • Reduced daily gastrointestinal complaints
Weiland et al 2016 Overweight & obese adults (50-76 yo) Milk phospholipids 8 weeks
  • Reduced waist circumference
Kokai et al 2018 Adults (50-70 yo) MFGM 24 weeks
  • Improved balance parameters
Yoshinaka et al 2018 Adults (71-75 yo) MFGM + exercise 8 weeks
  • Increased foot tapping
  • Increased open-close stepping score
Kim et al 2019 Women (82-84 yo) MFGM + exercise 3 months
  • Improved walking speed
Vors et al 2020 Postmenopausal women (<75 yo) Milk phospholipids 4 weeks
  • Reduced total cholesterol Apo B/Apo A-1 ratio, PCSK9
  • Increased fecal coprostanol
Watanabe 2021 Older adults MFGM 8 weeks
  • Inducted motor unit adaptation
do = day old; mo = month old; yo = year old; BSID = Bayley’s Scale of Infant Development; ASQ = Ages & Stages Questionnaire; GMDS = Griffith Mental Development Scale; FOS = fructooligosaccharides; PUFA = polyunsaturated fatty acids

Besides primary clinical studies, there is substantial secondary research.

The key secondary research publications on MFGM from year 2010 are listed below. Most of them are narrative review.

Meta-analysis
Systematic Review
Narrative Review