| Abstract: | Short-term administration of the glucose analog 5-thio-
-glucose to primiparous lactating rats reduced mammary tissue lactose concentrations to half of control levels. Treatment with colchicine alone caused slight reductions in mammary tissue lactose content. These treatments did not alter the morphology or degree of development of rough endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi apparatus, but did cause alterations in secretory vesicles. In mammary tissue from untreated lactating animals, large, swollen secretory vesicles were abundant in apical regions of epithelial cells. After thioglucose administration secretory vesicles in the apical cytoplasm were smaller and were more densely packed with contents. While administration of colchicine alone caused accumulation of large numbers of nearly fully swollen vesicles, treatment with both colchicine and thioglucose induced accumulation of smaller, less fully developed secretory vesicles which contained morphologically recognizable casein micelles. Mammary tissue from late gestation rats was low in lactose; vesicles in this tissue resembled secretory vesicles in tissue from rats treated with thioglucose in that they were small and densely packed. These observations suggest that lactose, an osmoregulator in mammary gland, is transferred from Golgi apparatus to the apical cell surface within secretory vesicles. Lactose appears to be important for secretory vesicle maturation in mammary epithelial cells. |
