Goat mammary gland differentiation during pregnancy

Development of mammary secretory epithelium and its functional differentiation occur during pregnancy under combined actions of ovarian steroids, pituitary hormones and growth factors. If the effect of these molecules is relatively well known, effect of differentiation factors expressed locally is not enough characterized. To understand local regulation of mammary tissue development and differentiation we realized transcriptional analysis on 5 physiological stages (4 during pregnancy and 1 during lactation). An appropriate experimental design was drawn to follow gene expression profiles during differentiation of mammary tissue. Results showed that at mid-pregnancy, mammary tissue was enough defferentiated into secretory epithelium to express milk protein genes and genes of the immune response system actors. But the secretoty activation of mammary epithelium was done only after parturition and wwas characterized by the expression of lipidogenesis genes. Keywords: time course, mammary gland differentiation, goat, pregnancy 18 samples, loop design