Cells from human mammary glands develop in the lab into structures that look and behave like milk-producing ducts in the breast.

A team led by Christina Scheel at the Helmholtz Center for Health and Environmental Research in Munich, Germany, obtained mammary gland tissue from healthy women undergoing surgery and isolated cells that line the ducts of the glands. The team suspended individual cells in a 3D flexible collagen gel, added growth factors, and found that the cells developed into structures that resembled the key functional units of the mammary gland. Some of the structures even contracted in the same way as ducts do during lactation.

Cells developed into duct-like structures only when they were grown in collagen gels that were not physically attached to the culture dish, suggesting that a flexible matrix is needed for normal growth of this tissue.

Development http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dev.123554 (2015)