The mammary factor MPBF is a prolactin-induced transcriptional regulator which binds to STAT factor recognition sites.

Site-directed mutagenesis of the three binding sites for the mammary factor MPBF in the beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) promoter demonstrates that MPBF is a transcriptional activator of the BLG gene in mammary cells. MPBF requires phosphorylation on tyrosine for maximum binding activity and binds to GAS (interferon gamma-activation site) elements which are similar to the MPBF binding sites. Prolactin induces MPBF binding activity in CHO cells and is not antigenically related to Stat1 (p91) and Stat2 (p113), suggesting that this transcription factor is likely to be another member of the STAT family of cytokine/growth factor-induced transcription factors.