Cellular Plasticity of Mammary Epithelial Cells Underlies Heterogeneity of Breast Cancer
1
Preclinical Research Program, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
2
Institut Curie, PSL Research University, INSERM U934, CNRS UMR3215, F-75248 Paris CEDEX 05, France
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Biomedicines 2018, 6(4), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines6040103
Received: 1 October 2018 / Revised: 25 October 2018 / Accepted: 30 October 2018 / Published: 1 November 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stem Cells and Cancer Therapeutics)
The hierarchical relationships between stem cells, lineage-committed progenitors, and differentiated cells remain unclear in several tissues, due to a high degree of cell plasticity, allowing cells to switch between different cell states. The mouse mammary gland, similarly to other tissues such as the prostate, the sweat gland, and the respiratory tract airways, consists of an epithelium exclusively maintained by unipotent progenitors throughout adulthood. Such unipotent progenitors, however, retain a remarkable cellular plasticity, as they can revert to multipotency during epithelial regeneration as well as upon oncogene activation. Here, we revise the current knowledge on mammary cell hierarchies in light of the most recent lineage tracing studies performed in the mammary gland and highlight how stem cell differentiation or reversion to multipotency are at the base of tumor development and progression. In addition, we will discuss the current knowledge about the interplay between tumor cells of origin and defined genetic mutations, leading to different tumor types, and its implications in choosing specific therapeutic protocols for breast cancer patients.
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Keywords:
lineage tracing; stem cells; multipotency; cellular plasticity; mammary gland; breast cancer
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MDPI and ACS Style
Rodilla, V.; Fre, S. Cellular Plasticity of Mammary Epithelial Cells Underlies Heterogeneity of Breast Cancer. Biomedicines 2018, 6, 103. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines6040103
AMA Style
Rodilla V, Fre S. Cellular Plasticity of Mammary Epithelial Cells Underlies Heterogeneity of Breast Cancer. Biomedicines. 2018; 6(4):103. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines6040103
Chicago/Turabian StyleRodilla, Verónica; Fre, Silvia. 2018. "Cellular Plasticity of Mammary Epithelial Cells Underlies Heterogeneity of Breast Cancer" Biomedicines 6, no. 4: 103. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines6040103
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