ArticleJournal of animal science2026
Transfer factor alleviates bovine mastitis and protects mammary epithelial barrier via the TAK1/NF-κB/MLCK signaling axis.
Article in Journal of animal science, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bovine mastitis is a prevalent and economically devastating disease in the global dairy industry. Antibiotic overuse leads to increased antimicrobial resistance and reduced milk quality, becoming major bottlenecks in clinical treatment. Transfer factor (TF), a safe, low-cost, and readily available immunomodulator that enhances cell-mediated immunity, has emerged as a promising antibiotic alternative. This study aimed to investigate TF's alleviative effect on bovine mastitis and its underlying molecular mechanisms. We found that clinical mastitis cows had significantly higher mRNA levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and markedly lower expression of tight junction (TJ) genes (nectin cell adhesion molecule 4 [NECTIN4], tight junction protein 1 [ZO-1], occludin) in mammary tissue and milk somatic cells compared to healthy controls. In vitro experiments, TF pretreatment inhibited the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6) and the expression of TJ genes and proteins (NECTIN4, occludin, ZO-1) in a graded manner across the tested concentrations (up to 180 µg/mL) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced bovine mammary epithelial cells (MAC-T). Mechanistically, TF alleviated TJ protein inhibition by regulating myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) activity, mimicking the effect of MLCK inhibitor ML-7. It also mitigated LPS-induced changes via inhibiting the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) pathway, similar to NF-κB inhibitor Bay 11-7082, and blocked NF-κB activation by inhibiting the transforming growth factor-β-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) pathway, comparable to TAK1 inhibitor Takinib. In vivo, intramammary infusion of TF via the teat canal into the infected quarter of cows with subclinical mastitis downregulated IL-1β/IL-6 mRNA, upregulated TJ genes, and reduced both MLCK expression and the phosphorylation of myosin light chain (MLC), p65, and TAK1. By day 5, TF group's (n = 17) California mastitis test (CMT) negative conversion rate reached 64.7% (vs. 13.3% in the normal saline (NS) group, n = 15) with a significantly lower somatic cell count (SCC). Our findings demonstrate that TF, by concurrently eliciting anti-inflammatory and barrier-repair effects via inhibition of the TAK1/NF-κB/MLCK axis, effectively alleviates bovine mastitis. This study furnishes a robust molecular framework for deploying TF as a non-antibiotic tool in the sustainable control of mastitis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.