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Identification of Multipotent Stem Cells in Mouse Mammary Gland
Wang Daisong1, Cai Cheguo1, Dong Xiaobing1, Yu Qing Cissy1, Zhang Xiaoou2, Yang Li2, Zeng Yi Arial1*
1State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shanghai 200031;
2Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology,Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
Abstract: The mammary gland is composed of multiple types of epithelial cells. Mammary stem cells (MaSCs) reside in the heterogeneous basal cells as suggested by transplantation assays， yet a specific marker for MaSCs remains unidentified. Moreover， the existence of these multipotent MaSCs remains controversial. Here we demonstrate that protein C receptor (Procr)， a novel Wnt target in the mammary gland， marks a unique population of multipotent mouse MaSCs. Procr-positive cells localize to the basal layer， exhibit epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition characteristics and express low levels of basal keratins. Procr-expressing cells have a high regenerative capacity in transplantation assays and differentiate into all lineages of the mammary epithelium by lineage tracing. Our results define a novel mammary stem cell population and settle a ranging debate on the existence of the multipotent mammary stem cell. These cells could be important in the initiation of breast cancer.
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