The effects of oxytocin and milk removal on milk secretion in the goat.

Abstract

1. When goats were milked each hour after being given a dose of synthetic oxytocin within the range thought to be released by the pituitary, there was a progressive rise in milk yield becoming statistically significant by 5 hr. The effect was reduced if the milk was not removed from the gland each hour.2. Milking transplanted glands each hour without injecting oxytocin also increased milk yield. The yield of the unmilked glands on the same animals was not affected. Massaging the transplanted glands had no effect on the milk yield.3. Oxytocin treatment and, to a lesser extent, frequent milking without oxytocin, altered milk composition. [Na], [Cl] and [non-casein protein] increased; [K] and [lactose] decreased.4. Oxytocin infusions permitted the leakage of [(14)C]lactose from milk to plasma and [(14)C]sucrose from plasma to milk.5. In some goats very small doses of oxytocin caused changes in milk composition and in one such animal these changes were mimicked by the close arterial infusion of bradykinin.6. Reasons are given for believing that the changes in composition are incidental to the main action of oxytocin in expelling milk and could be caused by a small number of leaks between the tight junctions connecting secretory cells.7. The increase in the rate of milk secretion following milk removal is probably of greater physiological significance than the small changes in milk composition and supports Levy's idea of a local negative feed-back via a chemical component of milk.