Abstract
AT the present time there is reason for believing that the suckling stimulus influences the mammary gland in two ways. First, there is abundant evidence (see ref. 1 for review) that suckling or other conditioned stimuli can evoke the release, from the neurohypophysis, of oxytocin, which in turn causes contraction of myoepithelial cells associated with the alveoli, resulting in ejection of stored milk from the alveolar tissue (the milk-ejection reflex). Secondly, according to the theory proposed by Selye2, the suckling stimulus causes release, from the anterior hypophysis, of prolactin which participates in the maintenance of secretion and of the functional integrity of the mammary alveolar tissue. These facts suggested to us that the primary effect of impulses reaching the brain as a result of the application of the suckling stimulus is to activate the neurohypophysis, causing the release of oxytocin, which, by a route that need not be discussed here, reaches the anterior pituitary and stimulates the latter to release prolactin.
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Bradley, T. R., Ph.D. thesis, University of Reading (1955).
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BENSON, G., FOLLEY, S. Oxytocin as Stimulator for the Release of Prolactin from the Anterior Pituitary. Nature 177, 700 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/177700a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/177700a0
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