P63 is a prosurvival factor in the adult mammary gland during post-lactational involution, affecting PI-MECs and ErbB2 tumorigenesis.

ABSTRACT: In embryogenesis, p63 is essential to develop mammary glands. In the adult mammary gland, p63 is highly expressed in the basal cell layer that comprises myoepithelial and interspersed stem/progenitor cells, and has limited expression in luminal epithelial cells. In adult skin, p63 has a crucial role in the maintenance of epithelial stem cells. However, it is unclear whether p63 also has an equivalent role as a stem/progenitor cell factor in adult mammary epithelium. We show that p63 is essential in vivo for the survival and maintenance of parity-identified mammary epithelial cells (PI-MECs), a pregnancy-induced heterogeneous population that survives post-lactational involution and contain multipotent progenitors that give rise to alveoli and ducts in subsequent pregnancies. p63+/- glands a

SUBMITTER: Yallowitz AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3950328 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature