Toxic milk (tx) is a copper disorder of mice that causes a hepatic accumulation of copper similar to that seen in patients with Wilson disease. Both disorders are caused by a defect in the ATP7B copper-transporting ATPase. A feature of the tx phenotype is the production of copper-deficient milk by lactating dams homozygous for the tx mutation; the milk is lethal to the pups. It has not been det...

The existence of numerous neuropeptides in milk, in concentrations that exceed those in maternal plasma, is well established. It is still unclear whether these neuropeptides are produced by the mammary gland or that the gland concentrates them from the general circulation. In this study, we have examined the possibility that the genes of these neuropeptides are expressed in the rat mammary glan...

Galanin is colocalized with GnRH, and its expression in these neurons is enhanced at proestrus, a time of activation of GnRH neurons. We tested the hypothesis that the expression of both the GnRH and galanin mRNAs in GnRH neurons decrease during lactation in the rat, a reproductive state characterized by reduced gonadotropin secretion. For double label in situ hybridization, GnRH mRNA was detec...

Near-term pregnant rats show a suppressed fever response to LPS that is associated with reduced induction of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in the hypothalamus. The objective of this study is to explore whether the LPS-activated signaling pathways in the fever-controlling region of the hypothalamus are specifically altered at near term. Three rat groups consisting of 15-day pregnant rats, near-term 21-...

Background: To contribute to the fight against malnutrition among women of reproductive age, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of food and the nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2018 to September 2018 to explore the frequency and distribution of the dietary, socioeconomic, and health characteristics of pregnant ...

1. Circulating concentrations of glucose, propionate, lactate and pyruvate, and net exchange of these compounds across the liver and gut, were measured in lactating and non-lactating dairy cows (a) in the normal fed state, (b) before, during and after intravenous infusion of an aqueous solution of glucose, propionate or lactate (lactating cows only) in fed animals, and (c) before and during 6 d...

1. The metabolism of acetate, glucose and D(-)-3-hydroxybutyrate was studied in lactating and non-lactating sheep in vivo. Special consideration was given to the utilization by hind-limb muscle in both groups of sheep and the uptake of nutrients by the lactating mammary gland was also measured. 2. The entry of acetate into the circulation (mmol/h per kg body-weight) was similar in all experimen...

Górski K., Hasiec M., Zielińska-Górska M., Fülöp F., Misztal T. (2017): Up-regulation of oxytocin receptor gene and protein in the sheep anterior pituitary by a dopamine derivative (salsolinol). Czech J. Anim. Sci., 62, 150−156. Specific oxytocin receptors (OTR) have been identified in the anterior pituitary (AP), and their expression has been shown to change in relation to the animal physiolog...

To determine the duration of lactation which is associated with weight loss in rural Bangladeshi mothers and also to determine the relationship with consumption patterns of principal food items, a cross-sectional study was carried out among 791 lactating rural Bangladeshi mothers aged 18-40 years. Results were compared with 333 non-pregnant and non-lactating mothers of a similar age group. The ...

Pregnancy and lactation are times of prolonged physiological changes affecting the neuroendocrine and immunological systems. One well-characterized change is the neuroendocrine hyporesponsiveness to acute stressful stimuli. We have now designed studies to see whether there is an alteration in the response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to an immunological inflammatory challeng...