Journal article

Control of mammary stem cell function by steroid hormone signalling

ML Asselin-Labat, F Vaillant, JM Sheridan, B Pal, D Wu, ER Simpson, H Yasuda, GK Smyth, TJ Martin, GJ Lindeman, JE Visvader

Nature | Published : 2010

Abstract

The ovarian hormones oestrogen and progesterone profoundly influence breast cancer risk, underpinning the benefit of endocrine therapies in the treatment of breast cancer. Modulation of their effects through ovarian ablation or chemoprevention strategies also significantly decreases breast cancer incidence. Conversely, there is an increased risk of breast cancer associated with pregnancy in the short term. The cellular mechanisms underlying these observations, however, are poorly defined. Here we demonstrate that mouse mammary stem cells (MaSCs) are highly responsive to steroid hormone signalling, despite lacking the oestrogen and progesterone receptors. Ovariectomy markedly diminished MaSC ..

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Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A. Morcom and T. Ward for technical assistance, T. Bouras for advice, S. Mihajlovic for histology and F. Battye for FACS support. We thank C. Clarke for providing the hPRa7 antibody, A. Burgess for AG1478, A. Parlow for prolactin, and the Australian Genome Research Facility for RNA bioanalyses. M.-L. A.-L. is supported by an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. This work was supported by the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium (J.E.V. and G.J.L.), the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.