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Secretion of Calcium into Milk: Review

Department of Physiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver 80262

ABSTRACT

Milk calcium exists in bound and ionized forms. Bound calcium is associated both with casein micelles and complexed to citrate and phosphate. Ionized calcium in milk is 1 to 4 millimolar, at least 1000 times its postulated concentration in the mammary alveolar cell. For this reason active transport mechanisms are necessary for transfer of this nutrient to the lumen of the mammary alveolus. Evidence that the major active transport system is a calcium adenosine triphosphatase residing in the membrane of the Golgi secretory vesicle is summarized. This adenosinetriphosphatase appears to be activated by calcium concentrations in the micromolar range, to require magnesium ions, and to operate by phosphorylation of a 100,000 dalton enzyme intermediate.

Metabolic processes are required to maintain a low concentration of calcium within the cytosol of the mammary alveolar cell. Because no evidence for sodium/calcium exchange could be found in the mammary gland of the lactating mouse, we suggest that these processes operate through a calcium adenosine triphosphatase in the basolateral membrane of the cell.

Decreased calcium in the alveolar lumina decreased the integrity of the barrier between blood and milk. It is postulated from observations in other secretory systems that an increase in cystolic activity calcium may play a role in lactogenesis.

¹ Department of Biology, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753.

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