Characterization and mitogenic responsiveness of murine mammary gland mononuclear cells.

Abstract

Lymphocyte traffic from subcompartments of intestinal mucosal associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) to mammary (1), salivary (2) and lacrimal (3) glands is a characteristic feature of the mucosal network. With respect to glandular structures it is not clear whether these compartments function simply by providing an environment into which precommitted B cells migrate and terminally differentiate or whether they also contain the functional cell populations necessary to interact in the generation of local antibody responses. Numerous studies have demonstrated the presence of viable lymphocyte populations in the colostrum, milk and mammary secretions for a variety of animal species (4–17). These cell populations have been isolated and studied with respect to cell surface markers (10,15–17) and responsiveness to mitogens (4,6–9,11–14). However, it is not known whether the cells which were characterized in these studies are expressed only in secretions or represent the total mononuclear cell component of the gland. Since little is known about isolated glandular cell populations and because the mouse is a well-defined model for studying B cell ontogeny, T and B cell interactions and cell traffic, the present report examines the morphological characteristics, membrane marker distribution and mitogen responsiveness of mouse mammary gland cell populations.KeywordsMammary GlandMucosal Associate Lymphoid TissueMammary Gland TissueMammary Gland CellMesenteric Lymph Node CellThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.