Centre for Urological Research

Stem Cells in Breast Cancer

Mammary stem cells (MSCs) are one of the many subpopulations of epithelial cells within the mouse mammary gland, which together form the functioning mammary duct.  The MSCs have the ability to regenerate each of the mammary epithelial cell lineages present in the adult tissue as well as their own cell numbers. 
The stem cells are longer lived than their differentiated neighbouring cells and have thus been proposed to mediate carcinogenic events which are known to have life long effects on breast cancer risk. 
At present we cannot definitively isolate mammary stem cells and so cannot assess their role in mammary development and disease.  We aim to use the unique cell cycle characteristics of adult stem cells to isolate mammary stem cells and to then determine their role in breast development and risk of disease.