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Mammary Epithelial Stem Cells

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Stem Cells Handbook

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Abstract

A major interest in mammary stem cells relates to their potential role in the development of mammary cancer. The role of stem cells in development of premalignant and malignant lesions is exemplified by the study of the lesions, that develop in the mammary glands of mice infected with mouse mammary tumor virus. In addition, fragments or dispersed cells from the mammary glands of old or young mice possess equivalent ability to repopulate a cleared mammary fat pad through serial passages before reaching growth senescence. Limiting dilution experiments reveal lobule-limited and duct-limited progenitor cells in the cell mixtures, and both of these arise from a common mammary epithelial stem cell. Human mammary epithelial cells may be separated into myoepithelial (CALLA+) and luminal (MUC+). The luminal population is able to give rise to both populations, whereas the myoepithelial population only gives rise to myoepithelial cells. The luminal cell population contains pale- or light-staining cells that appear to have stem cell properties. By electron microscopy, five populations of mammary epithelial cells are identified: primitive small light cells (SLCs), undifferentiated large light cells (ULLCs), very differentiated large light cells, classic cytologically differentiated luminal cells, and the myoepithelial cell. The SLC represent only 3% of the total cells from puberty through postlactation, but these and ULLCs are absent from growth-senescent mammary cell transplants. Mammary epithelial cell progenitors have been tentatively identified by expression of stem cell antigen-1. Mammary cancer appears to arise from clonal expansion of a stem cell-derived cell population through progression from premalignant lesions. The reduction of breast cancer risk associated with early pregnancy appears to be related to an absence of a proliferative response of parous epithelium to environmental carcinogens, suggesting that parity produces a new cell population that is committed to the secretory fate, perhaps owing to expansion of a committed transit-amplifying population of cells. Little is known about the signaling that is responsible for the maintenance and control of the mammary stem cell population in the normal gland or in “immortalized” premalignant lesions, and this may be critical for preventing or controlling breast cancer.

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Authors
  1. Gilbert H. Smith PhD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wadsworth Center and Ordway Research Institute, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY, USA

    Stewart Sell MD

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Smith, G.H. (2004). Mammary Epithelial Stem Cells. In: Sell, S. (eds) Stem Cells Handbook. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-411-5_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-411-5_39

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61737-367-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-411-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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