Tumor-initiating function of nucleostemin-enriched mammary tumor cells.

ABSTRACT: Nucleostemin (NS) is highly expressed in normal stem cells and tumors and is upregulated by estradiol in MCF7 breast cancer cells. To investigate the role of NS in mammary tumorigenesis, we established first that NS is expressed at higher levels in the basal cell type than in the luminal cell type in mouse mammary tumors and human breast cancer cells. NS expression was also increased during progression of mammary tumors in MMTV-Wnt1 and MMTV-PyMT transgenic mice and by the tumor sphere culture. To determine the function of NS-enriched tumor cells, we generated a bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic mouse line expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the NS promoter and bred it to MMTV-Wnt1 mice, so that NS-expressing cells can be prospectively isolated based on their GFP level

SUBMITTER: Lin T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2982898 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature