Mammary Glands 3f2gw

MAMMARY GLANDS

The mammary gland is a gland located in the breasts of females that is responsible for lactating, also known as producing milk.

Both males and females have glandular tissue within the breasts, however, after puberty the glandular tissue begins to develop in response to estrogen release in females.

Mammary glands only produce milk after childbirth. During pregnancy, the hormones progesterone and prolactin are released.  Progesterone - prevents the mammary glands from lactating before childbirth.  Prolactin – signals mammary glands to begin lactating after childbirth.

During pregnancy, small amounts of a pre-milk substance are produced, which is called colostrum.  This liquid is rich in antibodies and nutrients to sustain an infant for the first few days of life.

As a woman approaches menopause, the time when menstruation stops, the tissues of the ductile system become fibrous and degenerate. This causes involution of the mammary gland and decreases the ability to produce milk.

 Areola - the pigmented area on the human breast around the nipple. Its color can range from pink to red to dark brown or nearly black, but generally tend to be paler among people with lighter skin tones and darker among people with darker skin

 Nipple - a small projection of skin containing the outlets for 15–20 lactiferous ducts arranged cylindrically around the tip. The physiological purpose of nipples is to deliver milk to the infant, produced in the female mammary glands during lactation.

 Adipose tissue – develops under the skin of the breast to 15-20 glandular lobes of the mammary gland. It gives the breast its size and shape.

 Lobes - Each breast contains 15–20 lobes. Each lobe is composed of many lobules, at the end of which are sacs where milk is produced in response to hormonal signals.

 Lactiferous ducts - form a tree branched system connecting the lobules of the mammary gland to the tip of the nipple. They are the structures which carry milk toward the nipple in a lactating female. They are lined by a columnar epithelium ed by myoepithelial cells.

• Alveoli - grape-like clusters where milk is stored. • Lactiferous sinus -a circumscribed spindle-shaped dilation of the lactiferous duct just before it enters the nipple. In nursing mothers, this dilation stores a droplet of milk that is expressed by compression as the infant begins to suckle.