The breast cancer resistance protein BCRP (ABCG2) concentrates drugs and carcinogenic xenotoxins into milk Johan W Jonker1, Gracia Merino1, Sandra Musters1, Antonius E van Herwaarden1, Ellen Bolscher1, Els Wagenaar1, Elly Mesman2, Trevor C Dale3 & Alfred H Schinkel1 1 The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Division of Experimental Therapy, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 2 Experimental Animal Pathology, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 3 School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3US, United Kingdom. Correspondence should be addressed to Alfred H Schinkel a.schinkel@nki.nl Contamination of milk with drugs, pesticides and other xenotoxins can pose a major health risk to breast-fed infants and dairy consumers. Here we show that the multidrug transporter BCRP (encoded by ABCG2) is strongly induced in the mammary gland of mice, cows and humans during lactation and that it is responsible for the active secretion of clinically and toxicologically important substrates such as the dietary carcinogen PhIP, the anticancer drug topotecan and the antiulcerative cimetidine into mouse milk. Nature Medicine 11, 127 - 129 (2005) Published online: 30 January 2005; | doi:10.1038/nm1186 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.