Re-evaluation of mammary stem cell biology based on in vivo transplantation

doi:10.1186/bcr1856

Breast Cancer Research
Volume 10
Issue 1

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Re-evaluation of mammary stem cell biology based on in vivo transplantation

Gilbert H Smith¹ and Daniel Medina²

¹Mammary Stem Cell Biology Section, Mammary Biology And Tumorigenesis Laboratory, CCR, NCI, 37 Convent Drive, Bldg. 37, Rm. 1106, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA

²Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA

author email corresponding author email

Breast Cancer Research 2008, 10:203doi:10.1186/bcr1856


Published:	25 February 2008

See related letter by Lindeman et al., http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/10/3/402 and related letter by Smith and Medina, http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/10/3/403

Abstract

Over nearly half a century, transplantation methods have been employed to regenerate the mammary gland in vivo. Recent highly cited reports claim to have demonstrated the regeneration of an entire functional mammary gland from a single mammary epithelial cell. Nevertheless, re-examination of the literature on the transplantation biology of mammary gland regeneration reveals that a complex, combinatorial interaction between variously differentiated mammary epithelial cells and the mammary fat pad stroma is indispensable to this process. In the present article, these issues are reviewed and discussed to provide a greater understanding of the complexity of these multiplex interactions.