Researchers may have come up with a new, inexpensive tool for increasing milk production without growth hormones, according to a study published Monday. They have discovered that suppressing the serotonin in mammary glands can boost milk output by 15 percent.
Lead researcher Nelson Horseman of the University of Cincinnati’s medical school and his team found that serotonin is the chemical responsible for sending the signal to slow milk production. In an experiment using human cells, they found that serotonin builds up as a human mammary gland fills with milk, inhibiting further milk synthesis and secretion.
They then tried to see if they could take this discovery and use it to improve dairy production and have patented a drug which appears to reduce serotonin in the mammary glands without altering brain chemistry. They will soon be starting trials with dairy cows.
“We would have to know whether or not it gets into milk and if it does whether it would get through the pasteurization process,” he said in a telephone interview. Horseman’s drug produces the same increase in yield as growth hormones but is easier and cheaper to synthesize and can be given orally rather than through injections.
“Our ultimate goal would be to increase milk yield in a way that’s effective without side effects,” he said. Results of the human study were published in Monday’s early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.