the study was performed at a farm in bursa , situated in northwest turkey , at 408 north latitude , 298 east longitude and an altitude 149 m above sea level 
 during an 80-day period .
this study was approved by the ethical committee at the university of uludag , bursa , turkey .
eighteen saanen goats , ages 34 years , 
 were used in this study . the live weight ,
body condition score and milk yields of the goats were determined as follows : mean  standard errors ; 45.13  2.2 kg ; 
 bcs , 3.72  0.3 arbitrary units ; and my , 1.50 kg / day .
the goats were housed with their kids in a sheltered outdoor pen with straw bedding .
all goats grazed on 
 pasture between 9 am and 5 pm and had access to water ad libitum .
the goats were also given alfalfa hay [ dry matter ( 89.42% ) , cp - crude protein 
 ( 16.50% ) , ether extract ( 1.39% ) , ndf - neutral detergent fiber ( 58.85% ) , adf - acid detergent fiber ( 52.42% ) , adl - acid detergent lignin ( 11.40% ) , nfc - non - fibrous 
 carbohydrates ( 14.62% ) , ash ( 8.64% ) , ca - calcium ( 1.35% ) and p - phosphorus ( 0.12% ) ] ad libitum in the morning and evening .
on postpartum days 20 , 
 35 , 50 , 65 and 80 , venous blood samples were collected from the goats via jugular punctures into vacutainers ( venoject , terumo , leuven , belgium ) containing edta 
 as an anticoagulant and tubes with no anticoagulant after a fasting time of 3 hr . within 30 min
, the blood samples were centrifuged at 1,500 g 
 for 10 min at 4c , and the serum and plasma were harvested and stored at 20c until the day of the analysis .
two milk samples of 60 ml ( one at the morning milking and one at the evening milking ) were also individually collected in a plastic vial on 
 the same days as the blood samples .
the first collection occurred on day 20 post - parturition to avoid a collection of colostrum .
the milk samples were kept at 
 4c until the milk quality and composition analyses were conducted . for hormonal analyses ,
the milk samples were vortexed ; aliquots ( 500 ml ) of 
 whole milk were obtained ( into 1.5 ml eppendorf tubes , eppendorf , hamburg , germany ) and frozen at 20c until analysis .
the milk samples were analyzed for their fat , lactose , protein , solids - non - fat ( snf ) , total solid ( ts ) , freezing point depression ( fpd ) , density , acidity , free 
 fatty acids ( ffa ) , casein with infrared reflectance spectroscopy ( rev - milkoscan ft1 , foss electric , hillerd , denmark ) and scc using a somatic cell 
 counter ( fts / fcm combi 400 , bentley , chaska , mn , u.s.a . ) within 24 hr .
for microbial analyses , the raw milk samples were immediately diluted in sterile pbs ( 1 ml in 9 ml ) and then homogenized in a 
 vortex mixer , and serial 10-fold dilutions were made for colony countings .
aliquots of 0.1 ml of selected dilutions were plated for aerobic 
 mesophilic colony counts using casein - peptone glucose yeast extract agar plates ( pca : plate count agar , 1.05463.0500 , merck , darmstadt , germany ) followed by 
 incubation at 37c for 24 hr .
a pair of plates containing de man - rogosa - sharpe medium ( mrs agar , 
 1.10660.0500 , merck ) was used .
after inoculation , each plate was incubated in an anaerobic chamber using anaerogenic jars ( an0035a , oxoid , basingstoke , hants , 
 u.k . ) with an anaerobic pack ( cn0020c , oxoid ) at 37c for 48 hr .
plates containing 30300 colonies were selected , and representative colonies of each morphotype 
 previously characterized as lactobacilli were enumerated .
non - spore - former rods , gram - positive and catalase - negative isolates were regarded as lactobacilli and 
 calculated for each sample .
the milk samples were thawed overnight in the refrigerator and vortexed continuously to ensure sample uniformity .
skim milk was prepared by centrifuging 500 
 ml of whole milk at 16,000 g at 4c for 5 min .
milk and 
 plasma adiponectin were measured using a commercially available goat - specific sandwich enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay ( elisa ) kit ( goat adiponectin elisa 
 kit ; hangzhou eastbiopharm co. , ltd .
, yile road , china ) in an automated microplate reader ( x808 , biotek el , winooski , vt , u.s.a . ) . a goat resistin 
 sandwich elisa kit ( goat resistin elisa kit ; hangzhou eastbiopharm co. , ltd . ) was used to measure the resistin in the milk and plasma samples .
the milk and 
 plasma leptin levels were measured by sandwich elisa using a goat - specific elisa kit ( goat leptin elisa kit ; hangzhou eastbiopharm co. , ltd . ) .
the plasma crp level was also measured using a commercially available goat - specific elisa kit ( hangzhou 
 eastbiopharm co. , ltd . ) .
serum total protein , cholesterol and total lipid concentrations were determined with commercial kits ( ref t528 - 480 ; ref c507 - 480 and 
 t526 - 480 , respectively , teco diagnostics , anaheim , ca , u.s.a . ) following the manufacturer s instructions and using a spectrophotometer ( uv 1601 , shimadzu , 
 kyoto , japan ) .
the sensitivity , milk and serum intra - assay coefficients of the variation were 0.11 g / ml , 6% and 8% for 
 adiponectin , 0.12 ng / ml , 5% and 6% for resistin , 0.27 ng / ml , 6.7% and 8% for leptin , and 
 0.26 g / ml , 4% for crp .
changes at different time points were determined using repeated measures test for gaussian distributed variables 
 and friedman test for non - gaussian distributed variables .
the data are given as the means  sem ( standard error of the mean ) .
p values less 
 than 0.05 were considered statistically significant in all tests , and p value with bonferroni correction was used for multiple comparisons 
 ( *=0.01 ) .
the study was performed at a farm in bursa , situated in northwest turkey , at 408 north latitude , 298 east longitude and an altitude 149 m above sea level 
 during an 80-day period .
this study was approved by the ethical committee at the university of uludag , bursa , turkey .
eighteen saanen goats , ages 34 years , 
 were used in this study . the live weight ,
body condition score and milk yields of the goats were determined as follows : mean  standard errors ; 45.13  2.2 kg ; 
 bcs , 3.72  0.3 arbitrary units ; and my , 1.50 kg / day .
the goats were housed with their kids in a sheltered outdoor pen with straw bedding .
all goats grazed on 
 pasture between 9 am and 5 pm and had access to water ad libitum .
the goats were also given alfalfa hay [ dry matter ( 89.42% ) , cp - crude protein 
 ( 16.50% ) , ether extract ( 1.39% ) , ndf - neutral detergent fiber ( 58.85% ) , adf - acid detergent fiber ( 52.42% ) , adl - acid detergent lignin ( 11.40% ) , nfc - non - fibrous 
 carbohydrates ( 14.62% ) , ash ( 8.64% ) , ca - calcium ( 1.35% ) and p - phosphorus ( 0.12% ) ] ad libitum in the morning and evening .
on postpartum days 20 , 
 35 , 50 , 65 and 80 , venous blood samples were collected from the goats via jugular punctures into vacutainers ( venoject , terumo , leuven , belgium ) containing edta 
 as an anticoagulant and tubes with no anticoagulant after a fasting time of 3 hr . within 30 min
, the blood samples were centrifuged at 1,500 g 
 for 10 min at 4c , and the serum and plasma were harvested and stored at 20c until the day of the analysis .
two milk samples of 60 ml ( one at the morning milking and one at the evening milking ) were also individually collected in a plastic vial on 
 the same days as the blood samples .
the first collection occurred on day 20 post - parturition to avoid a collection of colostrum .
the milk samples were kept at 
 4c until the milk quality and composition analyses were conducted . for hormonal analyses ,
the milk samples were vortexed ; aliquots ( 500 ml ) of 
 whole milk were obtained ( into 1.5 ml eppendorf tubes , eppendorf , hamburg , germany ) and frozen at 20c until analysis .
the milk samples were analyzed for their fat , lactose , protein , solids - non - fat ( snf ) , total solid ( ts ) , freezing point depression ( fpd ) , density , acidity , free 
 fatty acids ( ffa ) , casein with infrared reflectance spectroscopy ( rev - milkoscan ft1 , foss electric , hillerd , denmark ) and scc using a somatic cell 
 counter ( fts / fcm combi 400 , bentley , chaska , mn , u.s.a . ) within 24 hr . for microbial analyses , the raw milk samples
were immediately diluted in sterile pbs ( 1 ml in 9 ml ) and then homogenized in a 
 vortex mixer , and serial 10-fold dilutions were made for colony countings .
aliquots of 0.1 ml of selected dilutions were plated for aerobic 
 mesophilic colony counts using casein - peptone glucose yeast extract agar plates ( pca : plate count agar , 1.05463.0500 , merck , darmstadt , germany ) followed by 
 incubation at 37c for 24 hr .
a pair of plates containing de man - rogosa - sharpe medium ( mrs agar , 
 1.10660.0500 , merck ) was used .
after inoculation , each plate was incubated in an anaerobic chamber using anaerogenic jars ( an0035a , oxoid , basingstoke , hants , 
 u.k . ) with an anaerobic pack ( cn0020c , oxoid ) at 37c for 48 hr .
plates containing 30300 colonies were selected , and representative colonies of each morphotype 
 previously characterized as lactobacilli were enumerated .
non - spore - former rods , gram - positive and catalase - negative isolates were regarded as lactobacilli and 
 calculated for each sample .
the milk samples were thawed overnight in the refrigerator and vortexed continuously to ensure sample uniformity .
skim milk was prepared by centrifuging 500 
 ml of whole milk at 16,000 g at 4c for 5 min .
milk and 
 plasma adiponectin were measured using a commercially available goat - specific sandwich enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay ( elisa ) kit ( goat adiponectin elisa 
 kit ; hangzhou eastbiopharm co. , ltd .
, yile road , china ) in an automated microplate reader ( x808 , biotek el , winooski , vt , u.s.a . ) .
a goat resistin 
 sandwich elisa kit ( goat resistin elisa kit ; hangzhou eastbiopharm co. , ltd . ) was used to measure the resistin in the milk and plasma samples .
the milk and 
 plasma leptin levels were measured by sandwich elisa using a goat - specific elisa kit ( goat leptin elisa kit ; hangzhou eastbiopharm co. , ltd . ) .
the plasma crp level was also measured using a commercially available goat - specific elisa kit ( hangzhou 
 eastbiopharm co. , ltd . ) .
serum total protein , cholesterol and total lipid concentrations were determined with commercial kits ( ref t528 - 480 ; ref c507 - 480 and 
 t526 - 480 , respectively , teco diagnostics , anaheim , ca , u.s.a . ) following the manufacturer s instructions and using a spectrophotometer ( uv 1601 , shimadzu , 
 kyoto , japan ) .
the sensitivity , milk and serum intra - assay coefficients of the variation were 0.11 g / ml , 6% and 8% for 
 adiponectin , 0.12 ng / ml , 5% and 6% for resistin , 0.27 ng / ml , 6.7% and 8% for leptin , and 
 0.26 g / ml , 4% for crp .
changes at different time points were determined using repeated measures test for gaussian distributed variables 
 and friedman test for non - gaussian distributed variables .
the data are given as the means  sem ( standard error of the mean ) .
p values less 
 than 0.05 were considered statistically significant in all tests , and p value with bonferroni correction was used for multiple comparisons 
 ( *=0.01 ) .
the milk and plasma concentrations of the adipokines , milk composition and quality characteristics of the lactating goats on days 20 , 35 , 50 , 65 and 80 
 postpartum are shown in table 1table 1.milk and plasma concentrations of adiponectin , leptin , resistin , crp , serum total protein , cholesterol and lipid concentrations , milk composition and 
 quality parameter levels on lactating days 2080 of saanen goats ( n=18)20 day35 day50 day65 day80 daymilk parametersmilk adipokinesmilk adiponectin ( g / ml)2.4  0.23.2  0.43.6  0.23.7  0.23.9  0.2milk resistin ( ng / ml)5.2  0.45.4  0.55.9  0.45.8  0.26.5  0.4milk leptin ( ng / ml)7.6  0.511.0  0.89.0  0.38.6  0.28.6  0.3milk composition fat ( % ) 4.4  0.24.5  0.24.5  0.24.8
 0.04.6  0.0protein ( % ) 3.4  0.03.3  0.13.5  0.13.6  0.13.7  0.1snf ( % ) 8.9  0.18.8  0.18.9  0.09.0
 0.19.2  0.1ts ( % ) 13.3  0.213.1  0.213.4  0.213.9  0.413.2  0.2fpd ( c)0.5  0.00.5  0.00.5  0.00.5  0.00.5  0.0density ( kg / m)1,029.9  0.51,028.2  0.61,029.7  0.41,028.2  0.81,032.7  0.5acidity ( sh)6.1  0,16.5  0.16.4  0.16.4  0.26.4  0.1ffa ( meq / l)0.4  0.00.4  0.00.5 
0.00.4  0.00.3  0.0casein ( % ) 2.6  0.02.6  0.02.7  0.02.8  0.02.9  0.0scc ( 10/ml)441.0  23.4303.7  16.5543.7  42.5686.7 
47.7236.1  25.7total aerobic colony (  10/ml)32  941  2.432  8.137  1.320  1.4lactobacillus (  10/ml)1.1  0.21.3  0.41.5  0.80.22 
0.10.13  0.05blood parametersplasma adiponectin ( g / ml)26.2  4.227.8  4.530.8  2.133.0  3.028.8  4.0plasma resistin ( ng / ml ) 32.9  5.230.7  4.932.7  5.529.8  5.233.6  6.0plasma leptin ( ng / ml)43.7  6.754.2  6.553.5  6.654.6  7.350.3  4.8plasma crp ( mg / l)2.4  0.32.5  0.32.5  0.22.6  0.32.7  0.4serum total protein ( g / l)57  2.060  2.165  2.463  2.258  1.1serum cholesterol ( mmol / l)1.8  0.01.6  0.01.3  0.11.4  0.01.2  0.0serum total lipid ( g / l)1.3  0.01.6  0.01.8  0.02.1  0.12.2  0.0a ) significantly ( p<0.01 ) different from the observed values for 20 post - partum lactation days
. data are given as the mean  standard error .. non - significant differences in milk and plasma resistin , crp , total protein , milk fat , lactose , ts , fpd , scc , the total aerobic colony count and 
 lactobacilli were observed on days 20 , 35 , 50 , 65 and 80 postpartum ( table 1 ) .
lactating goats had significantly 
 higher milk adiponectin levels on days 50 ( p<0.003 ) , 65 ( p<0.002 ) and 80 ( p<0.002 ) postpartum than on 
 day 20 ( table 1 ) .
the milk leptin levels were lower on day 20 than on days 35 ( p<0.005 ) , 50 
 ( p<0.008 ) , 65 ( p<0.01 ) and 80 ( p<0.01 ; table 1 ) .
the 
 plasma adiponectin levels on days 50 , 65 and 80 were higher ( p<0.002 , p<0.001 and p<0.01 , 
 respectively ) than those on day 20 ( table 1 ) .
the plasma leptin levels were lower on day 20 than on days 35 
 ( p<0.01 ) , 50 ( p<0.01 ) , 65 ( p<0.01 ) and 80 ( p<0.01 ; table 1 ) . the serum cholesterol levels on day 20 were higher than those on days 35 ( p<0.01 ) , 50 , 65 and 80 
 ( p<0.000 ) , and the serum total lipid levels on day 20 were lower than those on days 35 ( p<0.000 ) , 50 , 65 and 80 
 ( p<0.000 ; table 1 ) .
the percentage of milk protein was higher on days 65 
 ( p<0.01 ) and 80 ( p<0.000 ) than on day 20 ( table 1 ) .
milk snf and density 
 levels were higher on day 80 than on day 20 ( p<0.02 and p<0.000 ; table 1 ) . 

milk acidity levels were lower on day 20 than on days 35 ( p<0.001 ) , 50 ( p<0.005 ) , 65 ( p<0.000 ) and 80 
 ( p<0.000 ) postpartum ( table 1 ) . milk ffa level was lower on day 80 than on day 20 postpartum 
 ( p<0.01 ; table 1 ) .
the goats had a significantly lower milk casein level on day 20 than on days 
 50 ( p<0.01 ) , 65 ( p<0.000 ) and 80 ( p<0.000 ; table 1 ) .
a ) significantly ( p<0.01 ) different from the observed values for 20 post - partum lactation days .
a correlation analysis revealed a positive correlation between milk concentrations of adiponectin , leptin and resistin ( p<0.05 ; table 2table 2.interrelationships between milk adiponectin , leptin and resistin concentrations and the relationships of milk adiponectin , leptin and resistin with 
 plasma levels and plasma crp , serum total protein , cholesterol and lipid concentrations in lactating goatsmilk adiponectinrmilk resistinrmilk leptinrplasma adiponectinrplasma resistinrplasma leptinrplasma crprserum total proteinrserum cholesterolrserum total lipidrmilk adiponectin-0.500.490.550.580.480.480.280.200.15milk resistin 0.50 - 0.490.540.590.490.480.370.080.17milk leptin0.490.49 - 0.640.680.630.590.160.230.14a ) p<0.05 , b ) p<0.01 . ) .
there were also positive correlations between the milk and plasma concentrations of these three adipokines ( table 2 ) .
milk adiponectin level positively correlated with plasma adiponectin , leptin and resistin levels ( p<0.05 ; table 2 ) .
milk resistin level positively correlated with plasma adiponectin ( p<0.05 ) , leptin 
 ( p<0.01 ) and resistin levels ( p<0.05 ; table 2 ) .
milk leptin level also 
 positively correlated with plasma adiponectin and resistin levels ( p<0.01 ; table 2 ) .
there was 
 also a positive correlation between plasma crp level and milk leptin and resistin ( p<0.05 ) concentrations and an inverse correlation between 
 milk adiponectin and plasma crp concentrations ( table 2 ) .
there was no correlation between milk concentrations of 
 these adipokines and serum total protein , cholesterol and total lipid levels ( table 2 ) .
a significant negative 
 correlation was noted between milk adiponectin level and its scc ( p<0.05 ) , whereas no relationship was found between milk adiponectin level 
 and its composition parameters ( table 3table 3 .
the relationships of goat milk adiponectin , leptin and resistin concentrations with milk quality and compositionfatrlactoserproteinrsnfrtsrfpdrdensityracidityrffarcaseinrsccrtotal aerobic colonyrlactobacillusrmilk adiponectin0.220.270.330.020.240.010.030.050.160.360.470.140.07milk resistin 0.010.020.190.220.090.010.300.550.000.250.020.290.02milk leptin 0.210.100.170.380.070.000.380.300.240.130.330.290.01a ) p<0.05 . ) .
non - significant correlations were observed between milk resistin and leptin concentrations and milk components , scc , total aerobic colony and 
 lactobacillus count ( table 3 ) .
a ) p<0.05 , b ) p<0.01 . the 20- , 35- , 50- , 65- and 35-day body weight and bcs of goats were 42.5  1.6 , 43.00  2.1 , 44.50  2.4 , 45.65  2.5 and 50.00  2.3 kg , and 3.31  0.1 , 3.57  
 0.2 , 3.62  0.2 , 3.94  0.4 and 4.20  0.4 , respectively and not statistically different . non - significant correlations were observed between milk adipokine 
 concentrations and body weights and bcs .
this is the first report of the adiponectin and resistin concentrations in the milk of saanen goats .
leptin gene expression in the mammary gland of alpine goats 
 was reported by bonnet et al . .
leptin concentrations were also previously reported in the milk of 
 mixed - parity boer and boer crossbred meat - type goats by whitley et al . .
in this study , we measured 
 the leptin levels in lactating saanen goats and confirmed the presence of leptin in goat milk .
our data indicate that goat milk and plasma adiponectin and leptin 
 concentrations increased , whereas no changes were observed in the resistin levels during a lactation period of 2080 days .
the observed increase in the milk 
 adiponectin concentration during days 2080 of the lactation period has also been reported in humans by ilcol et al .
, weyermann et al . , bronsky et al .   and martin et al .
in good accordance with previous reports on humans , the adiponectin concentration in goat milk correlated positively with plasma adiponectin levels .
the significant 
 association between milk and plasma adiponectin concentrations indicates that circulating adiponectin is likely to be the major source of milk adiponectin .
the 
 mammary gland is not a meaningful source of adiponectin , its expression being 0.05% that of adipose tissue .
the 
 concentrations of leptin in goat milk and plasma were lower on day 20 than on days 35 , 50 , 65 and 80 days .
these results are similar to those reported in 
 mixed - parity boer and boer crossbred meat - type goats .
the presence of a significant association between milk and 
 plasma leptin concentrations during days 20 to 80 of lactation indicates that circulating leptin may be the major source of milk leptin .
the observed relationship 
 between milk and plasma leptin concentrations during days 20 to 80 of lactation has also been reported in humans by ucar et al .   and ilcol et al . .
as the number of lactation days increased 
 from 20 to 80 , non - significant differences were observed in the milk and plasma resistin concentrations of saanen goats .
.   demonstrated that milk resistin concentrations were highest in colostrum , decreased rapidly during 
 postpartum days 414 and remained low during postpartum days 15180 .
the positive correlation between these three adipokine concentrations in goat milk in the 
 current study during days 20 to 80 of lactation is also in good accordance with a previous observation in cord blood , milk and blood [ 14 , 18 , 40 ] .
however , an inverse relationship between the 
 resistin concentrations and both the leptin and adiponectin concentrations in milk and plasma was observed in some previous studies on humans [ 28 , 29 ] .
these differences between the results of the current study and those of ilcol 
 et al .
[ 28 , 29 ] may be due to changes in regulatory mechanisms 
 and factors for circulating adiponectin , leptin and resistin concentrations in goats and humans .
our results show that the circulatory concentrations of these 
 three adipokines are interrelated in days 20 to 80 of the lactation period of saanen goats .
it appears that the changes in the milk and plasma adiponectin 
 concentrations coincide with changes in the plasma leptin and resistin concentrations .
adiponectin , leptin and resistin hormones are secreted biologically active forms into milk and may transiently regulate the activities of 
 various tissues until the endocrine system of the neonate begins to function
. these bioactive milk peptides also play important roles , such as energy intake and 
 systemic and local imflammatory status .
[ 5 , 15 , 33 ] . at this point , another important focus of this study was a positive correlation between crp and these three adipokines .
crp , a marker of systemic 
 inflammation , was known as a stimulator of monocytes and macrophages [ 31 , 34 ] .
there 
 were a positive correlation between the crp and leptin and resistin concentrations in goat milk and an inverse correlation between crp and milk adiponectin , 
 consistent with previous studies in humans [ 14 , 28 , 39 ] .
it not only regulates t - cell proliferation and activation 
 but also influences cytokine production from t lymphocytes [ 9 , 16 ] .
furthermore , ble 
 et al .   demonstrated a direct crp - stimulatory activation of leptin , independent of il-6 or other 
 proinflammatory cytokines in humans .
the inverse relationship between crp and milk adiponectin in this study is in strong accordance with previous studies on 
 humans that report that proinflammatory factors suppress the adiponectin production of adipocytes [ 21 , 25 , 26 , 34 , 42 ] .
resistin , mononuclear cells and macrophages , other major sources of circulating resistin , have also been implicated in the inflammatory response of 
 humans . in good accordance with recent studies on human milk
[ 11 , 14 , 23 ] , we observed that plasma crp 
 correlated positively with milk resistin .
scc is recognized as a reliable indicator of animals udder health ( local inflammation ) and milk quality and changes in 
 their milk composition .
the milk somatic cells include leucocytes , neutrophils , macrophages , lymphocytes , erythrocytes and epithelial cells .
moreover , a high scc 
 is directly related to inverse effects on human health , including poor farm hygiene , antibiotic residues and the presence of pathogenic bacteria and toxins in 
 milk [ 27 , 35 ] .
the inverse relationship between adiponectin and scc or crp may be 
 related to the fact that adiponectin gene expression is decreased by oxidative stress or a pro - inflammatory state . in this study , no relation was observed between 
 these three adipokines and the total aerobic colony count , which represents the total amount of viable microorganisms that could grow aerobically on plate - count 
 agar , and the lactobacillus count .
lactobacilli , non - pathogen microorganisms , may possess potentially therapeutic properties , including anti - inflammatory and 
 anti - cancer activities .
protective anti - tumor and anti - cancer effects of some strains of these bacteria were demonstrated in mice .
a recent study reported that there may be a relationship between lactobacilli and the health of bovine udders . in the current study , we did not find a relationship between lactobacilli and these milk adipokines .
we also determined whether the milk levels of leptin , adiponectin and resistin are related to the milk composition of lactating goats .
however , no correlation 
 was observed between the milk concentrations of these major adipokines and milk composition . in conclusion ,
the current study is the first to show adiponectin and resistin concentrations in the milk of saanen goats during days 20 to 80 of the lactation 
 period . the data from the current study show interrelationships between the milk concentrations of adiponectin , leptin and resistin and significant positive 
 relationships between the milk and plasma concentrations of these three major adipokines during days 20 to 80 of the lactation period in goats .
the concentrations 
 of leptin and resistin in goat milk are also positively related to the plasma crp concentrations , whereas the milk adiponectin concentration is inversely related 
 to the plasma crp concentration and milk ssc .
the findings in this study indicate a possible role of these three adipokines in the inflammatory status of goat 
 milk , but more in - depth analyses are necessary to determine the mechanism and to better define their function .
 the main objectives of our study were to measure the major adipokines adiponectin , leptin and resistin in goat milk , to assess their interrelationships and to 
 assess their relationships with the plasma and serum concentrations of total protein , cholesterol , total lipids , plasma c - reactive protein ( crp ) , milk somatic 
 cell count ( scc ) , milk total aerobic colony and lactobacillus count , and milk components in lactating saanen goats . 
 the study was performed on eighteen 
 lactating saanen goats . 
 milk and blood samples were collected on days 20 , 35 , 50 , 65 and 80 of lactation postpartum . 
 the milk and plasma adiponectin levels on 
 days 50 , 65 and 80 postpartum were significantly higher than those on day 20 . 
 the milk and plasma leptin levels were lower on day 20 than on days 35 , 50 , 65 and 
 80 . 
 the milk concentrations of these major adipokines were positively intercorrelated . 
 the milk and plasma concentrations of these three adipokines were also 
 positively correlated . 
 the plasma crp concentrations correlated positively with milk leptin and resistin concentrations and inversely with milk adiponectin 
 concentration . 
 milk adiponectin concentration was inversely related with its scc . 
 these data confirm that adiponectin , leptin and resistin are present in goat 
 milk . 
 the milk concentrations of these three adipokines were interrelated and interacted with the general inflammatory marker , crp . 
 the inverse relationship 
 between milk adiponectin concentrations and its scc suggests that variations in milk adiponectin might be involved in the udder health of lactating goats , but 
 clinical trials are needed to support this hypothesis . 