Dense breast stromal tissue shows greatly increased concentration of breast epithelium but no increase in its proliferative activity.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Increased mammographic density is a strong risk factor for breast cancer. The reasons for this are not clear; two obvious possibilities are increased epithelial cell proliferation in mammographically dense areas and increased breast epithelium in women with mammographically dense breasts. We addressed this question by studying the number of epithelial cells in terminal duct lobular units (TDLUs) and in ducts, and their proliferation rates, as they related to local breast densities defined histologically within individual women.

Method

We studied deep breast tissue away from subcutaneous fat obtained from 12 healthy women undergoing reduction mammoplasty. A slide from each specimen was stained with the cell-proliferation marker MIB1. Each slide was divided into (

SUBMITTER: Hawes D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1557710 | biostudies-literature | 2006

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature