Breast cancer stem cells: An overview
Section snippets
Mammary stem cells
Terminal duct lobular units (TDLUs) are the basic functional/structural components of the branching ductal–alveolar system in the resting human mammary gland of premenopausal women, where luminal/ductal epithelial cells line the inner surface and myoepithelial cells form the outer basal layer.
There is robust evidence that both luminal and myoepithelial cell types originate from a common multipotent progenitor cell. It was demonstrated decades ago that fragments of mouse mammary gland could
Breast cancer stem cells
That cancer may be a stem cell disease is not a new concept; a stem cell origin for cancer was proposed and subsequently abandoned decades ago, probably because research facilities available at that time in the field of stem cell biology were not adequate to support the theory with convincing experimental evidence.11, 12, 13 It was only in the last few years that technological improvements, together with a critical reappraisal of data collected previously, have made scientists reassess the
Conclusion
A growing body of evidence supports the notion that breast cancer may arise from mutated mammary stem/progenitor cells, which have been termed ‘breast cancer stem cells’ because of their exclusive ability to sustain tumour formation and growth. Breast cancer stem cells have been identified based on the expression of their CD44+CD24−/low membrane phenotype and they have been demonstrated to have stem/progenitor cell properties. More recently, breast cancer stem cells have been isolated and
Conflict of interest statement
None declared.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported financially in part by AIRC (Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro).
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