Division of Breast Cancer Research, Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research, 237 Fulham Road, London SW3 6JB, UK.
Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.
Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2014 Jan-Feb;25-26:43-51. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2014.01.004. Epub 2014 Jan 17.
The stroma, which is composed of supporting cells and connective tissue, comprises a large component of the local microenvironment of many epithelial cell types, and influences several fundamental aspects of cell behaviour through both tissue interactions and niche regulation. The significance of the stroma in development and disease has been increasingly recognised. Whereas normal stroma is essential for various developmental processes during vertebrate organogenesis, it can be deregulated and become abnormal, which in turn can initiate or promote a disease process, including cancer. The mouse mammary gland has emerged in recent years as an excellent model system for understanding stromal function in both developmental and cancer biology. Here, we take a systematic approach and focus on the dynamic interactions that the stroma engages with the epithelium during mammary specification, cell differentiation, and branching morphogenesis of both the embryonic and postnatal development of the mammary gland. Similar stromal-epithelial interactions underlie the aetiology of breast cancer, making targeting the cancer stroma an increasingly important and promising therapeutic strategy to pursue for breast cancer treatment.
基质由支持细胞和结缔组织组成，构成了许多上皮细胞类型局部微环境的主要组成部分，并通过组织相互作用和生态位调节来影响细胞行为的几个基本方面。基质在发育和疾病中的重要性已得到越来越多的认识。虽然正常的基质对于脊椎动物器官发生过程中的各种发育过程是必不可少的，但它可能会失调并变得异常，这反过来又会引发或促进疾病过程，包括癌症。近年来，小鼠乳腺已成为理解发育和癌症生物学中基质功能的优秀模型系统。在这里，我们采取系统的方法，重点关注基质在乳腺特化、细胞分化以及乳腺胚胎和出生后发育的分支形态发生过程中与上皮的动态相互作用。类似的基质-上皮相互作用是乳腺癌发病机制的基础，因此针对癌症基质是一种越来越重要和有前途的治疗策略，可用于乳腺癌治疗。
