Influence of Dietary Fat on the Growth of Mammary Ducts in BALB/c Mice23

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Abstract
Essential fatty acid (EFA)-deficient diets, when fed to weanling BALB/c mice, retarded the rate of mammary ductal growth. Ductal growth was also markedly retarded in pups fed only EFA-deficient foods from birth (milk from mothers fed EFA-deficient diets for the first 3 wk until weaning, then an EFA-deficient diet for an additional 5 wk). The ability of dissociated mammary epithelial cells to form outgrowths was reduced, and the growth rate of those outgrowths that did form was retarded when such cells were injected into gland-free mammary fat pads in syngeneic hosts fed EFA-deficient diets. Indomethacin, an inhibitor of prostaglandin synthesis, when added at a level of 0.003% to a 15% corn oil-containing diet, resulted in the retardation of ductal growth to about the same extent as did a 15% hydrogenated cottonseed oil-containing diet; however, unlike that associated with EFA-deficient diets, the retardation associated with indomethacin was temporary. EFA appears to be required for normal ductal growth in BALB/c mice, and prostaglandins may be involved in the growth-regulating process.