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A mammary gland is an exocrine gland in humans and other mammals that produces milk to feed young offspring.Mammals get their name from the Latin word mamma, "breast".The mammary glands are arranged in organs such as the breasts in primates (for example, humans and chimpanzees), the udder in ruminants (for example, cows, goats, sheep, and deer), and the dugs of other animals (for example, dogs ...
The mammary glands of mammals are specialized to produce milk, a liquid used by newborns as their primary source of nutrition. The monotremes branched early from other mammals and do not have the teats seen in most mammals, but they do have mammary glands. The young lick the milk from a mammary patch on the mother's belly.
[69] [76] As both the IGF-1R and the EGFR are independently essential for mammary gland development, and as combined application of IGF-1 and EGF, through their respective receptors, has been found to synergistically stimulate the growth of human breast epithelial cells, these growth factor systems appear to work together in mediating breast ...
One important type of parental care is the use of the mammary glands in the female breasts to nurse the baby. [4] The female reproductive system has two functions: The first is to produce egg cells, and the second is to protect and nourish the offspring until birth. The male reproductive system has one function, and it is to produce and deposit ...
The areola has many sebaceous glands, and the skin color varies from pink to dark brown. The basic units of the breast are the terminal duct lobular units (TDLUs), which produce the fatty breast milk. They give the breast its offspring-feeding functions as a mammary gland. They are distributed throughout the body of the breast.
Estrogens and progesterone promote mammary epithelial cell proliferation resulting in the formation of the primary and secondary ductal structure. Progesterone induces formation of tertiary side-branches in the mammary glands during puberty and during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle upon which lobuloalveolar structures form under the ...
Genes expressed in the eutherian placenta that are important for the later stages of fetal development are in female marsupials expressed in their mammary glands during their lactation period instead. [46] After this period, the joey begins to spend increasing lengths of time out of the pouch, feeding and learning survival skills.
The breasts are not part of the reproductive system, but mammary glands were essential to nourishing infants until the modern advent of infant formula. Later in life, a woman goes through menopause and menstruation halts. The ovaries stop releasing eggs and the uterus stops preparing for pregnancy.