Quantitative milk proteomics--host responses to lipopolysaccharide-mediated inflammation of bovine mammary gland

Intramammary infusion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in cows induces udder inflammation that partly simulates mastitis caused by infection with Gram-negative bacteria. We have used this animal model to characterize the quantitiative response in the milk proteome during the time course before and immediately after the LPS challenge. Milk samples from three healthy cows collected 3 h before the LPS challenge were compared with milk samples collected 4 and 7 h after the LPS challenge, making it possible to describe the inflammatory response of individual cows. Quantitative protein profiles were obtained for 80 milk proteins, of which 49 profiles changed significantly for the three cows during LPS challenge. New information obtained in this study includes the quantified increase of apolipoproteins and other anti-inflammatory proteins in milk, which are important for the cow's ability to balance the immune response, and the upregulation of both complement C3 and C4 indicates that more than one complement pathway could be activated during LPS-induced mastitis. In the future, this analytical approach may provide valuable information about the differences in the ability of individual cows to resist and recover from mastitis.