Iron in the Lactating Mammary Gland of the Rat

Summary

Chemical analysis of lactating rat mammary glands showed the presence of considerable depositions of nonheme iron. Only a small quantity of this iron appears to be stainable by the Prussian blue method. The quantity and the distribution of this stainable iron outside the epithelial cells suggests that it does not represent the entire metabolic pool of the gland tissue. Subcellular fractionation of the lactating mammary gland 6 hr after intravenous injection of ⁵⁹Fe showed that most of the ⁵⁹Fe was located in the supernatant fraction probably in association with the caseinogen inside the vacuoles of the epithelial cells.