Journal
STEM CELL REPORTS
Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages 60-74Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2015.05.014
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Cancer Institute [K99/R00, CA126980]
- Harvard Stem Cell Institute
- Milton Fund award from Harvard University
- Hearst Foundation Young Investigator award from BWH
- Start-up Fund from BWH
Ask authors/readers for more resources
It has been shown that the mammary luminal lineage could be maintained by luminal stem cells or long-lived progenitors, but their identity and role in breast cancer remain largely elusive. By lineage analysis using Wap-Cre mice, we found that, in nulliparous females, mammary epithelial cells (MECs) genetically marked by Wap-Cre represented a subpopulation of CD61(+) luminal progenitors independent of ovarian hormones for their maintenance. Using a pulse-chase lineage-tracing approach based on Wap-Cre adenovirus (Ad-Wap-Cre), we found that Ad-Wap-Cre-marked nulliparous MECs were enriched with CD61(+) alveolar progenitors (APs) that gave rise to CD61(-) alveolar luminal cells during pregnancy/lactation and could maintain themselves long term. When transformed by different oncogenes, they could serve as cells of origin of heterogeneous mammary tumors. Thus, our study revealed a type of long-lived AP within the luminal lineage that may serve as the cellular origin of multiple breast cancer subtypes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available