Cloning of Mammary Stem Cells
Abstract
The goal of this proposal is the cloning of specific cells from the mouse mammary gland that have the capacity for self-renewal. There is overwhelming evidence that these types of cells play an important role in the origin of mammary cancer. Cloning and characterizing these cells would provide with new insights to find unique indicators for self-renewing cells that can be utilized for cell selection techniques or drug targeting. Major findings: We have identified a new mammary epithelial cell population that originates from differentiating cells during pregnancy. This epithelial population does not undergo cell death during involution and remodeling following a lactation period. We show that these cells can function as alveolar progenitors in subsequent pregnancies, and they can play an important role in functional adaptation. We have studied the growth properties of these cells in vitro, and we have clonally amplified these cells in primary mammary epithelial cell cultures. In transplantation studies, this parity-induced epithelial population shows the capacity for self-renewal and contributes significantly to ductal morphogenesis and lobulogenesis (i.e. these cells have important features of mammary stem cells). However, it is still unclear whether these cells can give rise to a!1 epithelial subtypes including myoepithelial cells.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADB275451
Entities
People
- Kay-uwe Wagner
Organizations
- University of Nebraska Omaha