Regulation of mouse mammary-gland γ-glutamyltranspeptidase mRNA during pregnancy, lactation and weaning

The level of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) activity and of its mRNA were determined in the mouse mammary gland during pregnancy, lactation and weaning. The GGT activity, which is very low in the virgin-mouse mammary gland (5 munits/mg of protein), increases progressively during pregnancy (3-fold), reaches its maximum at the onset of lactation (8-fold) and returns rapidly to basal level at weaning. Although no GGT-specific mRNA is detected in the virgin-mouse mammary gland, a single faint band of 2.2 kb in size is found during pregnancy. During lactation, an additional mRNA of 2.4 kb in size appears, and the level of both mRNAs is higher. This high level of mRNA persists during weaning as well. Southern-blot analysis of mouse mammary-gland DNA provides convincing evidence that there is only one gene which codes for the two mRNAs. The present study provides the first evidence for a physiological regulation of the two GGT mRNAs in the same tissue.

Dissociation of cytological and functional differential in virgin mouse mammary gland during inhibition of DNA synthesis

Epithelial cells in mammary gland explants from mice assume a secretory appearance and synthesize the milk proteins, casein and alpha-lactalbumin, when cultured in the presence of insulin, hydrocortisone and prolactin. In cells from the glands of mature virgin animals such syntheses are known to require DNA synthesis. Addition of cytosine-beta-D-arabinofuranoside to the explant cultures suppresses both hormonally induced DNA synthesis and enhanced production of milk protein. To determine the level at which this block in terminal differentiation occurs, epithelial cell pellets were prepared from virgin mouse mammary gland explants cultured with various combination of insulin, hydrocortisone and prolactin, and subsequently examined by light and electron microscopy. We observed that the epithelial cells cultured in the presence of all three hormones developed fully, cytologically and ultrastructurally, even in the absence of DNA synthesis in vitro. Likewise, these cells were able to incorporate [3H]uridine into RNA efficiently and to incorporate amino acids into acid-precipitable polypeptides at levels equivalent to the untreated controls. However, immunoprecipitation of newly synthesized casein peptides showed that no new synthesis of casein occurred in cells prevented from synthesizing DNA. These data show uncoupling of cytological development and synthesis of milk protein in mammary explants from mature virgin mice inhibited from synthesizing DNA.