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Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, 259 Morrison Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA¹ Department of Animal Health, Welfare and Nutrition, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark

(Correspondence should be addressed to Y Boisclair; Email: yrb1{at}cornell.edu)

In prepubertal heifers, the mammary parenchyma consists of epithelial and myoepithelial cells growing within a mammary fat pad (MFP). The MFP produces IGF-I that stimulates epithelial cell proliferation. In other species, adipose tissue expansion induces inflammation-related proteins (IRP), such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β transforming growth factor β, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). The MFP production of IRP may influence mammary development because they impair not only insulin but also IGF-I actions. Moreover, the MFP expansion seen with development and increased nutrition coincides with reduced parenchymal growth. Our first objective was to identify IRP capable of altering proliferation of bovine mammary epithelial cells. TNF, but neither IL-6, IL-1β MCP-1 nor PAI-1, inhibited basal and IGF-I-stimulated proliferation in MAC-T cells and primary cells isolated from heifers. Our second objective was to determine whether MFP expression of IRP changed in a manner consistent with inhibition of parenchymal growth. MFP expression was measured from 100 to 350 kg body weight (experiment 1) or at 240 kg body weight (experiment 2) in dairy heifers offered restricted or high planes of nutrition. In experiment 1, neither nutrition nor development altered MFP expression of TNF. Nutrition increased MCP-1 and PAI-1 but only before MFP expansion and after cessation of allometric parenchymal growth. In experiment 2, nutrition increased TNF and PAI-1, but not MCP-1. Thus, MFP expansion increases IRP production in cattle, but this is unlikely to contribute to reduced parenchymal growth observed with development or increased nutrition.