The study of growth and differentiation of mammary epithelium has been hampered by the difficulty of maintaining these functions in vitro. We describe a system for the primary culture of rat mammary epithelium on an acellular matrix derived from whole rat mammary glands that maintains growth and differentiation for months. Cultures plated on this complex substratum produce 50 times the alpha-la...

In multicellular organisms cell growth and differentiation are influenced by soluble factors, cell-cell interactions and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. We have used the rat mammary gland as a model system to study the role of extracellular matrix components in the regulation of milk protein gene expression. Since mammary epithelial cells differentiate on a basement membrane in vivo, we...

A complex of human alpha-lactalbumin and oleic acid (HAMLET) was originally isolated from human milk as a potent anticancer agent. It kills a wide range of transformed cells of various origins while leaving nontransformed healthy cells largely unaffected both in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, purified alpha-lactalbumins from other mammals form complexes with oleic acid that show biological act...

We present a method for determining the ensembles of native protein structures that result from the large fluctuations of low probability revealed by hydrogen-exchange experiments. The measured protection factors are used to bias Monte Carlo simulations to sample the structures of the exchange competent species. The approach is illustrated by its application to the case of alpha-lactalbumin.

Milk is produced in the udder by mammary epithelial cells (MEC). Milk contains MEC, which are gradually exfoliated from the epithelium during lactation. Isolation of MEC from milk using immunomagnetic separation may be a useful non-invasive method to investigate transcriptional regulations in ruminants' udder. This review aims to describe the process of isolating MEC from milk, to provide an ov...

alphaB-crystallin, a member of the small heat shock protein family, possesses chaperone-like function. Recently, it has been shown that a missense mutation in alphaB-crystallin, R120G, is genetically linked to a desmin-related myopathy as well as to cataracts [Vicart, P., Caron, A., Guicheney, P., Li, A., Prevost, M.-C., Faure, A., Chateau, D., Chapon, F., Tome, F., Dupret, J.-M., et al. (1998)...

Recent studies in dairy cows have demonstrated that serotonergic ligands affect milk yield and composition. Correspondingly, serotonin (5-HT) has been demonstrated to be an important local regulator of lactational homeostasis and involution in mouse and human mammary cells. We determined the mRNA expression of bovine 5-HT receptor (HTR) subtypes in bovine mammary tissue (BMT) and used pharmacol...