Contraceptive progestins with androgenic properties stimulate breast epithelial cell proliferation

ABSTRACT: Hormonal contraception exposes women to synthetic progesterone receptor (PR) agonists, progestins, and transiently increases breast cancer risk. How progesterone and progestins affect the breast epithelium is poorly understood because we lack adequate models to study this. We hypothesized that individual progestins differentially affect breast epithelial cell proliferation and hence breast cancer risk. Using mouse mammary tissue ex vivo, we show that testosterone-related progestins induce the PR target and mediator of PR signaling-induced cell proliferation Receptor Activator of NF-?B Ligand (Rankl) whereas progestins with anti-androgenic properties in reporter assays do not. We develop intraductal xenografts of human breast epithelial cells from 36 women, show they remain hormone-responsi

SUBMITTER: Prof. Cathrin Brisken 

PROVIDER: S-SCDT-EMM-2021-14314P | biostudies-other |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other