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Comment
. 2011 Nov 8;30(24):4858-9.
doi: 10.1038/emboj.2011.415.

The unmasking of novel unipotent stem cells in the mammary gland

Jane E Visvader  1 , Geoffrey J Lindeman
Affiliations
Comment

The unmasking of novel unipotent stem cells in the mammary gland

Jane E Visvader et al. EMBO J. .

Abstract

Nature 479 7372, 189–193 (2011); published online October 09 2011

Mammary stem cells (MaSCs) have been prospectively isolated and shown to reconstitute a fully functional mammary gland in the mouse at the single cell level. These cells are self-renewing and can differentiate into all mature mammary epithelial cell types, thus fulfilling the defining characteristics of a stem cell. In a recent issue of Nature, Blanpain and colleagues (Van Keymeulen et al, 2011) add a new layer of complexity to the prevailing model of the mammary epithelial hierarchy through the recognition of novel unipotent stem cells that appear to maintain normal homeostasis of postnatal mammary epithelium. These data point to the existence of an unexpectedly complex hierarchy of stem cells that include multipotent as well as more restricted stem cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Model of the epithelial differentiation hierarchy in the mammary gland. There is recent evidence for a heterogeneous compartment of stem cells, in which the stem cell at the apex is multipotent and likely has higher self-renewing capacity than the unipotent stem cells (myoepithelial-stem cell, Myo-SC; luminal-stem cell, Lum-SC) and the ‘shorter-term’ mammary repopulating cell that emerges in pregnancy (Preg-SC). Alternatively, there may be one true stem cell and a hierarchy of descendant progenitor cells (indicated by overlap between the stem and progenitor cell compartments) that include long- and short-lived lineage-restricted progenitors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

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