Abstract
For the past 20 years the mouse has served as a workhorse for studying the molecular underpinnings of human breast cancer. While some genetically engineered mouse mammary tumor models do not accurately recapitulate human disease (that is, the MMTV-Neu model and HER2-overexpressing human cancers), additional tumor models exist for studying the initiation, progression, and treatment of human breast cancer. The relationships between normal mouse mammary epithelial cells and tumor cells, however, have remained poorly defined. A recent article in Breast Cancer Research has shed light on these relationships.
Highlights
For the past 20 years the mouse has served as a workhorse for studying the molecular underpinnings of human breast cancer
Identification of the pathways in the various cellular components, such as IL-8 signaling in the mammary stem cell (MaSC), paves the way to develop eradication strategies against these cells
Lim and colleagues previously reported an increase in luminal progenitor cells in women heterozygous for BRCA1 mutations and demonstrated that these tumors were more similar at the transcriptome level to luminal progenitors than the MaSC-enriched population [5]
Summary
For the past 20 years the mouse has served as a workhorse for studying the molecular underpinnings of human breast cancer. In the previous issue of Breast Cancer Research, Lim and colleagues separated the various cellular components of the mouse mammary gland – including mammary stem cells (MaSCs), luminal progenitor cells, and differentiated luminal cells – to compare normal mouse and human mammary epithelial cells and various mouse tumors at the transcriptome level [1].
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