Thermogenic activity in brown adipose tissue (BAT) decreases during lactation; the down-regulation of the gene encoding uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) is involved in this process. Our studies show that UCP2 mRNA expression does not change during the breeding cycle in mice. In contrast, UCP3 mRNA is down-regulated in lactation but it recovers after weaning, in parallel with UCP1 mRNA. This leads to...

Lameness, one of the most important disorders in dairy industry, is related to postpartum diseases and has an effect on cow welfare, leading changes cows' daily behavioral variables. This study quantified lameness time budget cows transition period. In total, 784 multiparous from 8 commercial Dutch farms were visually scored their locomotion (score 1–5) body condition 1–5). Each was early late ...

Nutrient needs increase during pregnancy and lactation to support fetal growth and milk synthesis, respectively. Physiological adjustments that are made to meet those needs alter the fraction of ingested nutrient retained, or the bioavailability. Using stable isotopes as tracers, we measured calcium, zinc and selenium homeostasis in women during reproduction. The physiological response, and the...

Lactation is the most energetically demanding period in the life cycle of female mammals, and its effects on digestive flexibility and the size of internal organs have been extensively studied in laboratory mice and rats since the early 1900s. However, there have been only two studies on this topic for wild rodent species. Here, we analyzed digestive flexibility--that is, changes in gut content...

Female mammals call on hormonally driven metabolic adaptations to meet the energy demand of late pregnancy and lactation. These maternal adaptations preserve limiting nutrients and promote their transfer to the uterus during pregnancy or mammary gland during lactation. The novel metabolic hormone fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) was recently shown to increase suddenly at the onset of lactati...

Citrate is a normal constituent of milk that affects milk-processing characteristics. It is an intermediate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and plays an indirect role in fat synthesis by providing reducing equivalents in the form of NADPH. The objective of this study was to investigate variation in citrate with stage of lactation and de novo fatty acid synthesis, without confounding dietary eff...

Fluctuations in Zn metabolism throughout gestation and lactation might affect Zn requirements. However, scientific data on Zn requirements for breeding sows are limited. The objective of the present study was to assess the Zn status of primiparous and multiparous sows using different Zn status biomarkers, to identify periods of critical Zn status throughout the reproductive cycle at different p...

To obtain detailed information about the histological changes occurring in the mouse nipple during the reproductive cycle, we examined and quantified the S-phase of cell by immunohistochemical staining with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), and analysed histologically the subepithelial fibrous elements. The nipple markedly increased in size dramatically on days 15-18 of pregnancy. The densities of cell...

Members of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters play a pivotal role in cellular lipid efflux. To identify candidate cholesterol transporters implicated in lipid homeostasis and mammary gland (MG) physiology, we compared expression and localization of ABCA1, ABCG1, and ABCA7 and their regulatory genes in mammary tissues of different species during the pregnancy-lactation cycle. Murine and...