Immunologic methods for the identification of cell types. II. Expression of normal mouse mammary epithelial cell antigens in mammary neoplasia.

Mouse mammary epithelial (MME) cell antigens were cell type-specific and were retained, to a large extent, by MME cells after neoplastic transformation. These MME cell antigens were expressed in mammary tumors of BALB/c, C3H, GRS/A, RIII, and Is/Bi mice tested and were not expressed in tumors whose normal counterpart was other than mammary tissue. They were not dependent on cell culture conditions or on the presence of murine mammary tumor virus; therefore, they can be used in an ubiquitous cell type marker for MME cells in both normal and neoplastic tissues.