Glucose is the primary precursor for the synthesis of lactose, which controls milk volume by maintaining the osmolarity of milk. Glucose uptake in the mammary gland plays a key role in milk production. Glucose transport across the plasma membranes of mammalian cells is carried out by 2 distinct processes: facilitative transport, mediated by a family of facilitative glucose transporters (GLUT); ...

Extracellular matrix (ECM) plays an important role in the normal physiology of tissues and progression to disease. Earlier studies and our external microarray data analysis indicated that mammary matrix from involuting tissue showed upregulation of genes involved in ECM remodeling. The present study examines the fate of mammary and oral cancer cells grown in the ECM from lactating mammary gland...

1. Serum prolactin (PRL) levels, both basal and post-suckling peak, were estimated in fifty-seven lactating women. 2. Basal PRL levels were significantly higher in all lactating women irrespective of the duration of lactation as compared to the levels in non-pregnant, non-lactating women. 3. There was significant positive correlation (r 0.69, P less than 0.001) between the basal PRL levels and ...

The selenium status of a group of 23 lactating and 13 nonlactating women was assessed from 37-wk gestation through 6-mo postpartum. The mean overall dietary Se intake of both groups of women was 80 +/- 37 micrograms/d. Plasma and erythrocyte Se levels were lower in the lactating than in the nonlactating mothers both before and after parturition. Breast-milk Se concentrations fell from 20 microg...

The mammary gland is one of the few adult tissues that strongly induce de novo fatty acid synthesis upon physiological stimulation, suggesting that fatty acid is important for milk production during lactation. The committed enzyme to perform this function is fatty acid synthase (FASN). To determine whether de novo fatty acid synthesis is obligatory or dietary fat is sufficient for mammary gland...

The optimum starch content of diets fed to lactating cows is not well defined, but 24% to 26% starch (DM basis) has been suggested (Staples, 2007). Kaiser and Shaver (2006) and Bucholtz (2006), from surveys of high producing (>13,650 kg RHA) dairy farms in Wisconsin (n = 9) and Michigan (n = 18), respectively, reported starch concentrations of diets fed to lactating cow groups ranging from 25% ...

Introduction Ionophores have been used extensively in the beef industry in Canada since 1977. Until recently, there has been no label indication for use of ionophores in lactating dairy cattle. Ionophores are feed additives that alter rumen microbial populations through ion transfer across cell membranes. In Canada, the label warning prohibiting the use of Rumensin premix in lactating dairy ca...

a digestion trial using cannulated lactating cows was conducted to evaluate the influence of barley grain processing on characteristics of ruminal fermentation and the site and extent of digestion. the experiment consisted in 4 periods and lasted 84 days. the total mixed rations contained 39.86% of grains and 42.90% of alfalfa hay and the rest of ration was composed mainly by cane molasses, fat...

Metabolism of nonesterified fatty acid (palmitate, 1.1 mM) and triacylglycerol (TAG; triolein, 0.4 mM in the form of both rat chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins) was studied in isolated perfused working hearts from fed nulliparous, lactating, and weaned rats. Hearts from virgin rats oxidized palmitate readily, but optimal cardiac mechanical performance occurred during perfusion with...

1. The rate of noradrenaline-stimulated lipolysis is lower in fat-cells from lactating than from pregnant rats; this difference is eliminated by the addition of adenosine deaminase [Aitchison, Clegg & Vernon (1982) Biochem. J. 202, 243-247]. 2. The activity of 5'-nucleotidase, and hence the capacity of the cells to synthesize adenosine, was the same in fat-cells and also stromal cells of adipos...