Anatomy of the mammary gland of an adult woman is normal

The mammary gland is located between the II and VI edges along the vertical axis and between the edge of the sternum and the mid axillary line along the horizontal axis. On average, the diameter of the mammary gland is 10-12 cm, and its thickness is 5-7 cm. The mammary gland tissue extends to the axillary region, where it is located in the form of the so-called axillary outgrowth of Spens. The form of the mammary gland may be different, but usually dome-shaped, conical in non-giving women and somewhat saggy in giving birth. The mammary gland consists of three main structures: skin, hypoderm and glandular tissue.

The latter consists of a parenchyma and stroma. The parenchyma is divided into 15-20 segments, radially converging to the nipple. The milky ducts extending from each segment are 2 mm in diameter, expanding in the region of the milky sines to 5-8 mm in diameter; 5-10 large milky ducts open on the nipple, and another 5-10 ducts serve, in fact, as blind pockets. Milk is drained along the ducts from a fraction consisting of 20-40 lobules. Each segment consists of 10 – 100 acini, or alveolar-tubular secretory units. The stroma and subcutaneous breast tissue contains fat, connective tissue, blood vessels, nerves, and lymphatic vessels.

The skin of the mammary gland is thin and contains hair follicles, sebaceous glands and eccrine (sweat) glands. The nipple in women who have not given birth, located at the level of the fourth intercostal space, is abundantly innervated by sensory nerve fiber endings, contains sebaceous and apocrine sweat glands, but is devoid of hair follicles. Perinatal circle pigmented, is 15-60 mm in diameter. Morgagni tubercles located on the periphery of the areola, are elevations formed by the openings of the ducts of the Montgomery glands.