Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural evidence for telocytes in the different physiological stages of the female rat mammary gland

Introduction: Telocytes (TCs) are recently described to integrate a variety of different cells. Aim of the work. The aim was to investigate the presence of TCs in the rat mammary gland at its different physiological stages. Material and methods: Twenty four adult female albino rats were classified into 4 groups: resting, mid-pregnancy, lactating, and involution groups. Inguinal mammary glands were processed for immunohistochemical and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) examination. Results: TCs were immune-positive for c-kit and CD34 and showed significant differences in the different studied groups indicating variable roles at the different stages. TEM results characterized TCs by its shape and the long slender and moniliform telopodes linking the cells into stromal networks. The extracellular exosomes, homocellular synapsis and hetero-cellular synapsis were observed. Conclusion: Our study provides evidence for the presence of TCs in all stages of the gland; not only in the resting stage as proved by other studies, but with immune-labeling differences suggesting different structural and physiological roles of TCs according to the stage requirements. These functions might via controlling the proliferation during pregnancy and lactation and the involution of the gland after weaning. Thus, more future functional studies of TCs will be important to help understanding the mechanism by which TCs contribute to tissue homeostasis concerning the role of the stromal/epithelial interactions in mammary gland biology and pathology including breast cancer which would be revolutionary for future therapeutic applications.