Michael Akers provides the basics for understanding mammary development and lactation and conveys the critical regulatory events in lactation. This text willl prove to be an invaluable overview of mamorary development and lactation for undergraduates and graduates studying lactation, new researchers, and as a review for established scientists. Additionally, the book will be an important resource for professionals in the animal and dairy industry and for those in other scientific disciplines such as food chemistry, cell biology, and endocrinology whose work is closely tied to mammary gland development and function. Lactation and the Mammary Gland covers growth and development of the mammary gland including comparisons between species. It imparts and emphasizes the critical nature of mammary growth and the onset of lactation at the time of parturition. Special emphasis is given to the endocrine and growth factor regulation of both mammogenesis and lactogenesis. A thorough discussion of the role of growth hormone in development and maintenance of lactation or galactopoiesis adds to this book's value as a text and reference. The author reviews the presence of hormones, growth factors, and other bioactive compounds in milk and mammary secretions as well as the potential for use of the mammary gland as a bioreactor in the pharmaceutical industry. A description of the nutritional and management factors in milk production round out the book's comprehensive coverage.

Proceedings of a symposium, satellite to the 24th International Congress of Physiological Sciences, University of Pennsylvania.

Lactation: A Comprehensive Treatise, Volume IV, The Mammary Gland/Human Lactation/Milk Synthesis, forms the fourth in a series. When the first three volumes were published in 1974, publication of future volumes was not contemplated. However, the gratifying acceptance by the scientific community and the continuation of rapid advances in lactation, have provided the impetus for the continuation of the series. The present volume is concerned with general aspects of the mammary gland, human lactation, and mechanisms of milk synthesis. The volume is divided into three main parts. Part I covers some aspects of the mammary gland and lactation not discussed in the first three volumes and expands on others. Topics discussed include the development of the mammary apparatus and neuroendocrine control of lactation. Part II is devoted to more specific consideration of human lactation as a whole. It includes studies on breast feeding and the breast cancer process. Part III on milk synthesis deals with the mechanisms of milk synthesis; enzymology and control of lactose biosynthesis; molecular aspects of milk protein biosynthesis; and ion and water transport in the mammary gland.

The Model Chapter on Infant and Young Child Feeding is intended for use in basic training of health professionals. It describes essential knowledge and basic skills that every health professional who works with mothers and young children should master. The Model Chapter can be used by teachers and students as a complement to textbooks or as a concise reference manual.

This book had its genesIs In the frustrations of the editors in locating authoritative, up-to-date material for an interdisciplinary graduate course in mammary gland biology, lactation, and breast-feeding. As we turned to the original literature several reasons for the dearth of usable material became clear: (1) In the areas of mammary gland biology and physiology, particularly as they relate to the human, reviews simply have not kept up with current research, which has in the last two decades provided tremendous insight into the mechanisms of milk secretion and its control. (2) The lack of interest in human milk as infant food inhibited researchers until very recently from investigating human lactation. (3) Much of the relevant clinical information remains anecdotal with little scientific basis. In this book we have tried to present the fundamentals of mammary gland physiology at the organismic and cellular levels in a form readily understood by physicians, scientists, and other professionals. This basic information is accompanied by authoritative reviews of the nutritional and immunological properties of human milk and by clinically relevant chapters designed to help health care professionals deal with the medical problems of the breast-feeding mother and her infant. We have strived in these chapters for up-to-date, authoritative, but readable accounts. In so far as possible we have avoided areas where much of our understanding rests on speculation. In the clinical domain this was not always possible because of a lack of solid, scientific information about breast-feeding.