NUTR 2050 Chapter 6: Chapter 6 Nutrition
8 Sep 2015
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Document Summary
Human milk is the preferred food for premature and sick newborns. The functional units of the mammary gland (the source of milk for offspring, also commonly called the breast. The presence of mammary glands is a characteristic of mammals) are the alveoli (a rounded or oblong-shape cavity present in the breast). Each alveolus is composed of a cluster of cells (secretory cells cells in the acinus, milk gland, that are responsible for secreting milk components into the ducts) with a duct in the center, whose job is to secrete milk. These branchlike collecting ducts lead to the nipple. Myoepithelial cells (specialized cells that line the alveoli and can contract to cause milk to be secreted into the duct) surround the secretory cells. They are contract under the influence of oxytocin (a hormone produced during letdown that causes milk to be ejected into the ducts) and cause milk to be ejected into the ducts.
