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Enrichment of a Population of Mammary Gland Cells that Form Mammospheres and Have In vivo Repopulating Activity

¹ Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; ² Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; ³ Molecular Cytogenetics Section, Laboratory of Experimental Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland; and ⁴ Departments of Physiology and Developmental Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

Requests for reprints: Robert A. Weinberg, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Nine Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142. Phone: 617-258-5159; Fax: 617-258-5213; E-mail: weinberg{at}wi.mit.edu.

The identification of mammary gland stem cells (MGSC) or progenitors is important for the study of normal breast development and tumorigenesis. Based on their immunophenotype, we have isolated a population of mouse mammary gland cells that are capable of forming "mammospheres" in vitro. Importantly, mammospheres are enriched for cells that regenerate an entire mammary gland on implantation into a mammary fat pad. We also undertook cytogenetic analyses of mammosphere-forming cells after prolonged culture, which provided preliminary insight into the genomic stability of these cells. Our identification of new cell surface markers for enriching mammosphere-initiating cells, including endoglin and prion protein, will facilitate the elucidation of the cell biology of MGSC. [Cancer Res 2007;67(17):8131–8]

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