Gene expression in the human mammary epithelium during lactation: the milk fat globule transcriptome.

ABSTRACT: The molecular physiology underlying human milk production is largely unknown because of limitations in obtaining tissue samples. Determining gene expression in normal lactating women would be a potential step toward understanding why some women struggle with or fail at breastfeeding their infants. Recently, we demonstrated the utility of RNA obtained from breast milk fat globule (MFG) to detect mammary epithelial cell (MEC)-specific gene expression. We used MFG RNA to determine the gene expression profile of human MEC during lactation. Microarray studies were performed using Human Ref-8 BeadChip arrays (Illumina). MFG RNA was collected every 3 h for 24 h from five healthy, exclusively breastfeeding women. We determined that 14,070 transcripts were expressed and represented the MFG transcri

SUBMITTER: Maningat PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2661101 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature