Mammary stem cells articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mammary epithelial cells act to continuously renew the mammary tissue and must balance differentiation and self-renewal. Here they show that Mcam, a non-canonical Wnt pathway member, regulates communication between macrophages and mammary epithelial cells, thereby maintaining self-renewal and subsequently promoting mammary ductal morphogenesis.

    • Xing Yang
    • , Haibo Xu
    •  & Baowei Jiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    TGFβ signalling is reported to regulate hormone-responsive mammary epithelial progenitors that are associated with breast cancer risk. Here, the authors find that short-term TGFBR1 inhibition prevents tumour formation in rat breast cancer models and identify a TGFBR1 inhibition-responsive sub-population of mammary epithelial cells, which is associated with human breast cancer risk.

    • Maša Alečković
    • , Simona Cristea
    •  & Kornelia Polyak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gpr125 has emerged as a specific marker of mammary stem cells and basal progenitors. Here they show that Gpr125 cells congregate at ductal tips during morphogenesis and amass at tumor margins, and that high Gpr125 predicts early tumor onset and poor outcome in basal breast cancer.

    • Elena Spina
    • , Julia Simundza
    •  & Pamela Cowin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mammary morphogenesis is a complex process. Here the authors describe how stem cells build a three-dimensional self-organizing multi-lineage tissue by showing that positional signals from the extracellular matrix through the collagen receptor DDR1 lead stem cells to differentiate into multi-lineage committed multi-layered progeny.

    • Gat Rauner
    • , Dexter X. Jin
    •  & Charlotte Kuperwasser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    TET2 loss is associated with human cancers but its role in the mammary gland development and tumorigenesis is unclear. Here, the authors show that TET2–FOXP1 complex mediates demethylation of genes involved in luminal lineage commitment and endocrine response, underlying a role of TET2 loss in endocrine resistant breast cancer.

    • Mi Ran Kim
    • , Meng-Ju Wu
    •  & Chun Ju Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origin and source of mammary gland progenitors and how they interact with the adipose‐rich stroma is unclear. Here, the authors identify PDGFRα+ adipocyte progenitors in the murine mammary stroma as a mesenchymal cell lineage recruited into the expanding epithelium during development, hormone exposure and pregnancy.

    • Purna A. Joshi
    • , Paul D. Waterhouse
    •  & Rama Khokha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The contribution of EMT in mammary gland homeostasis and human breast cancer is still unclear. Here, using in vivo lineage tracing and breast cancer PDXs the authors demonstrate that the repopulating capacity in normal mammary epithelial cells and tumorigenic capacity in breast cancer is independent of expression of EMT-associated genes.

    • Shaheen S. Sikandar
    • , Angera H. Kuo
    •  & Michael F. Clarke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of stem/progenitor cell populations in mammary gland morphogenesis is not well understood. Here, the authors show that a transcriptional repressor, Blimp1, is expressed in a rare luminal stem cell population, which contribute to duct formation, and survive multiple rounds of pregnancy and involution.

    • Salah Elias
    • , Marc A. Morgan
    •  & Elizabeth J. Robertson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three-dimensional culture systems and organoids for mammary glands are important to understand mammary gland development. Here, the authors identify conditions (including Neuregulin 1 and R-spondin 1) that allow the culture of organoids that are responsive to hormonal stimulation for up to 2.5 months.

    • Thierry Jardé
    • , Bethan Lloyd-Lewis
    •  & Trevor C. Dale

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The identity and origin of adult mammary stem cells has been much debated. Here, the authors use a stochastic genetic labelling approach, together with optical tissue clearing, to visualize clonal progeny and show that unipotent stem/progenitor cells contribute to adult mammary gland development.

    • Felicity M. Davis
    • , Bethan Lloyd-Lewis
    •  & Christine J. Watson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The downstream effector of the Hippo pathway, YAP, is a critical regulator of both normal and cancer stem cell properties. In this study, the authors show that in basal-like breast tumors YAP forms a complex with SRF and together they induce a mammary stem cell gene signature through the transcriptional activation of IL-6.

    • Tackhoon Kim
    • , Suk-Jin Yang
    •  & Dae-Sik Lim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The stem and progenitor populations that regulate mammary gland development are debated. Giraddi et al.use experimental and mathematical approaches to show that the three lineages of the mammary gland are maintained by their own restricted progenitors, and that cycling status links to the oestrus cycle.

    • Rajshekhar R. Giraddi
    • , Mona Shehata
    •  & John Stingl

  • Article |

    Basal-like breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with poor prognosis; however, its cellular origins and aetiology are poorly understood. Here the authors provide evidence that ID4 is a key controller of mammary stem/progenitor cell self-renewal, acting upstream of Notch signalling to repress luminal fate commitment.

    • Simon Junankar
    • , Laura A. Baker
    •  & Alexander Swarbrick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Epigenetic changes associated with post-natal differentiation have been characterized. Here the authors generate epigenomic and transcriptional profiles from primary human breast cells, providing insights into the transcriptional and epigenetic events that define post-natal cell differentiation in vivo.

    • Philippe Gascard
    • , Misha Bilenky
    •  & Martin Hirst

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