Signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (Stat5) transduces extracellular cytokine and growth factor signals to the nucleus of mammary epithelial cells and thereby regulates gene transcription during pregnancy, lactation, and weaning. Gene constructs were prepared which subject the wild-type Stat5 or a constitutively active variant of Stat5 to the control of the beta-lactoglobulin (BL...

Transgenic pigs were generated that produced human protein C in their milk at up to 1 g/liter. The gene construct was a fusion gene consisting of the cDNA for human protein C inserted into the first exon of the mouse whey acidic protein gene. These results demonstrate that the mouse whey acidic protein gene contains regulatory elements that can direct cDNA expression at high levels in the pig m...

During post-lactational mammary gland involution, the bulk of mammary epithelium dies and is reabsorbed. This massive cell death and tissue restructuring was found to be accompanied by a specific pattern of gene expression. Northern blot analysis showed that weaning resulted in a dramatic drop in ODC, a gene involved in synthesis of a component of milk, and the nearly simultaneous induction of ...

Identification of the key genes related to mammary gland development in the dairy goat is important for optimizing milk production. In this research, after comparing the expression of ESTs in 7 Long-SAGE libraries corresponding to different stages of development (early virgin, late virgin, early pregnancy, late pregnancy, middle lactation, early involution and late involution) and sequence alig...

Human erythropoietin (EPO) gene and cDNA associated with the rabbit whey acidic protein (WAP) gene promoter were used to tentatively produce the recombinant protein in milk of transgenic mice and rabbits. Several gene constructs showed good efficiency in the mouse mammary cell line HC11. None of them was able to direct the expression of the hormone at a concentration higher than 50 micrograms/m...

Background: The bovine AGPAT6 gene is one of the potential candidate genes governing milk fat synthesis.Objectives: Identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the targeted region of AGPAT6 gene and their effect on expected breeding values (EBV) of first lactation milk production traits viz. fat %, fat yield and 305 days milk yield in Karan Fries (KF) breeding bulls were so...

As the main precursor for lactose synthesis, large amounts of glucose are required by lactating dairy cows. Milk yield greatly depends on mammary lactose synthesis due to its osmoregulatory property for mammary uptake of water. Thus, glucose availability to the mammary gland could be a potential regulator of milk production. In the present study, the effect of glucose availability on expression...

Stimulation of alpha- and beta-adrenergic receptors in the bovine mammary gland affects milking characteristics such as milk yield and peak flow rate. The aim of this study was to detect possible correlations between milkability, adrenergic receptor binding capacity and receptor expression at the mRNA level. In addition, dose-response relationships of alpha- and beta-adrenergic receptor stimula...

During the lactation period, mammary epithelial cells secrete large amounts of milk proteins. The coordinate regulation of milk protein expression is effected by the lactogenic hormones. We have investigated the activity of a mammary gland-specific transcription factor (MGF), which mediates hormonal influences at the level of a milk protein gene promoter. MGF-binding sites are present in the pr...

Oil supplementation in dairy cattle diets is used to modulate milk fat composition, as well as the expression of mammary lipogenic genes, whose regulation remains unclear. MiRNAs are small non-coding RNA considered as crucial regulators of gene expression, offering clues to explain the mechanism underlying gene nutriregulation. The present study was designed to identify miRNAs whose expression ...