IkB kinase alpha: a link in the chain of the mammary cycle
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Correspondence: Richard Clarkson rwec2@mole.bio.ac.uk
Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, UK
Breast Cancer Res 2002, 4:173-175 doi:10.1186/bcr446
Published: 5 July 2002Abstract
The transcription factor NF-κB exhibits altered activity in some breast cancers but the relevance of this association has not been established. Cao et al.'s elegant study recently published in Cell reveals a NF-κB-dependent signalling pathway responsible for epithelial proliferation in the mouse mammary gland. Could this mechanism, rather than prevention of apoptosis, be responsible for the reported association between NF-κB and breast cancer? Could the specificity of NF-κB modulators of the IkB kinase complex determine the fate of epithelial cells at different stages of mammary development?