Nutritional regulation of mammary cell apoptosis in lactating ewes

Abstract

Recent advances in understanding the control of the mammary cell population now offer new insights to understand the decline in milk yield of dairy animals, which has long been a biological conundrum for the mammary biologists. Evidence indicates that change in mammary cell number is the result of an imbalance between cell proliferation and cell removal and that this is a principal cause of declining production (Stefanon et al., 2001). Further, it suggests that the persistency of lactation, the rate of decline in milk yield with stage of lactation, is strongly influenced by the rate of cell death by apoptosis in the lactating gland (Wilde et al., 1997). The most significant advance in understanding the cell biology underpinning persistency of lactation has come from the demonstration that cell loss during lactation occurs by apoptosis. Several researches obtained in cell cultures in mouse and rat have indicated that gene expression and cellular activities are modulated by the reactive oxygen species..........

Keywords

• mRNA, GST, cell apoptosis, sheep