Mammary Stem Cell-Like Gene Expression and Relation to Cancer.

Abstract

Abstract Mammary stem cells are bipotential and suggested to be the origin of breast cancer development, but are elusive and vaguely characterized.Breast tumors can be divided into subgroups, each one requiring specific treatment. To determine a possible association between mammary stem cells and breast cancer, we have previously made a detailed characterization of the transcriptome in murine mammary epithelial stem-like cell line (HC11) and made a thorough investigation of global gene-expression changes during stepwise differentiation using dual-color comparative microarray technique.Subsequently, we performed a cross-species comparison to reveal conserved gene expression between stem cells and subtype-specific and prognosis gene signatures, and correlated gene expression to in vivo mammary gland development. Our analysis provided a unique map of the transcriptomic changes and a number of novel mammary stem cell markers. Interestingly, our comparisons show that specific subtypes of breast cancers with poor prognosis and metastasizing capabilities show resemblance to stem-like gene expression. We are now investigating several marker candidates and regulations of miRNAs during differentiation. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 1162.