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Mammary stem cells have myoepithelial cell properties

2014; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 16; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/ncb3025

1476-4679

Michael Prater, Valérie Petit, I. Alasdair Russell, Rajshekhar R. Giraddi, Mona Shehata, Suraj Menon, Reiner Schulte, Ivo Kalajzić, Nicola Rath, Michael F. Olson, Daniel Metzger, Marisa M. Faraldo, Marie‐Ange Deugnier, Marina A. Glukhova, Julia C. Stingl,

Wnt/β-catenin signaling in development and cancer

Contractile myoepithelial cells dominate the basal layer of the mammary epithelium and are considered to be differentiated cells. However, we observe that up to 54% of single basal cells can form colonies when seeded into adherent culture in the presence of agents that disrupt actin–myosin interactions, and on average, 65% of the single-cell-derived basal colonies can repopulate a mammary gland when transplanted in vivo. This indicates that a high proportion of basal myoepithelial cells can give rise to a mammary repopulating unit (MRU). We demonstrate that myoepithelial cells, flow-sorted using two independent myoepithelial-specific reporter strategies, have MRU capacity. Using an inducible lineage-tracing approach we follow the progeny of myoepithelial cells that express α-smooth muscle actin and show that they function as long-lived lineage-restricted stem cells in the virgin state and during pregnancy. Myoepithelial cells considered terminally differentiated are now shown by Stingl and colleagues to have stem cell properties in vitro, to repopulate a mammary gland on transplantation and to behave as stem cells by lineage tracing.