The dynamics of individual whey protein concentrations in cows’ mammary secretions during the colostral and early lactation periods

Abstract

The bovine whey consists of more than 200 different types of proteins, of which β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin, serum albumin, immunoglobulins and lactoferrin predominate. However, their concentrations are not stable due to the existence of protein dynamics during a transition from colostrum secretion to mature milk. To evaluate the dynamics of whey proteins of Jersey cows during a colostral phase and first month of lactation and an influence of the number of lactations, 268 milk samples from 135 Jersey cows were selected through a clinical evaluation. Whey was obtained by rennet coagulation of the mammary secretion. The concentration of total proteins was determined by the biuret method and their fractions were identified by 12% dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (12% SDS-PAGE). Maximum concentrations of all protein fractions were observed in the first 12 h of lactation, reducing over the course of the study. Modification of the protein predominance was also observed. The transition from colostrum secretion to milk occurred between 24 and 72 h postpartum. There was an influence of the number of lactations on the dynamics of whey proteins, indicating that multiparous cows had better immunological and nutritional quality when compared to primiparous cows.

Bovine colostrum whey: Postpartum changes of particle size distribution and immunoglobulin G concentration at different filtration pore sizes

“…The rate of decrease in the IgG concentration slows down with time (Figure 3 and Supplemental Table S1). This is in agreement with the general finding that IgG concentration decreases in the postpartum timeline (Phipps et al, 2017;Silva-del-Rio et al, 2017;Raimondo et al, 2019). Overall, the concentration was within a similar range (Supplemental Table S1) to that of colostrum whey obtained by Elfstrand et al (2002), of 18.8 mg/mL for a mixture of 0 to 80 h postpartum samples.…”

Variations in N-linked glycosylation of glycosylation-dependent cell adhesion molecule 1 (GlyCAM-1) whey protein: Intercow differences and dietary effects

“…The concentrations of many whey proteins, including lactoferrin and IgG, are lower in primiparous cows than in multiparous cows (Raimondo et al, 2019). In this study, we observed that the proportion of glycans from GlyCAM-1 increased in cows of parity 1 (80.9%) compared with cows of parity 4 or older (77.1%; P < 0.01).…”

Whey protein dynamics in goat mammary secretions during colostrum and early lactation periods

“…In the fractionation of the proteins by 12% SDS-PAGE during the colostral phase and the first month of lactation of Saanen goats, the following protein fractions were identified and quantified: lactoferrin (84.0 ± 4.0 kDa); albumin (66.0 ± 2.0 kDa); heavy chain immunoglobulin (52.0 ± 2.0 kDa); light chain immunoglobulin (26.0 ± 1.5 kDa); β -lactoglobulin (β-LG) (16.0 ± 1.0 kDa) and α-lactalbumin (α-LA) (12.0 ± 0.65 kDa). Identifying whey proteins through 12% SDS-PAGE using purified proteins has already been described as efficient in previous studies (Raimondo et al, 2013a(Raimondo et al, , 2013b(Raimondo et al, , 2018.…”

“…Specifically, various studies have focused on the whey proteome of goat milk (Sun et al ., 2020). Investigations into the whey proteomes at different stages of lactation have been carried out in both bovine (Yang et al ., 2017; Raimondo et al ., 2018) and goat species (Raimondo et al ., 2013a; Sun et al ., 2020). Previous studies have also examined goat milk whey proteomes at different lactation stages (Raimondo et al ., 2013b; Hernández-Castellano et al ., 2014).…”