Casein production during differentiation of mammary epithelial cells in collagen gel culture.

Mouse mammary epithelial cells cultivated on floating collagen gels secrete, as judged by immunoblotting, the full array of caseins found in mouse milk. The secreted caseins are all phosphorylated and have estimated minimum molecular weights (MWs) of 45, 40, 27, and 23 kD in SDS-PAGE. Intracellular caseins of epithelia from collagen gel cultivation or from lactating mammary glands are a combination of mature caseins identical with the secreted molecules and novel caseins whose apparent size in SDS-PAGE is different from the secreted molecules. The novel caseins were shown to be non-phosphorylated species apparently insufficiently mature for secretion. Our data indicate that, with regard to casein expression, cultivation of mouse mammary epithelia on collagen gels essentially duplicates their behavior in the lactating mouse mammary glands.