Breast Development and Cancer (Volume II)

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the second edition of a previous one, entitled “Breast Development and Cancer”.

Breast development is a complex process: breasts undergo multiple changes throughout life, from the intrauterine life to senescence. The human breast consists of parenchymal and stromal elements. The parenchyme forms a system of branching ducts eventually leading to secretory acini development, and the stroma consists mainly of adipose tissue, providing the environment for the development of parenchyma; mutual and reciprocal interactions between epithelial components and mesenchymal or stromal cells are responsible for prenatal, infant and pubertal breast development. Evidence suggests that the mesenchyme has indictive properties that lead to the local migration and changes in the cell adhesion of epithelial cells. Hormonal influences on this paracrine interaction between the mesenchyme and parenchyme are evident at all stages of development. The formation of lactiferous ducts is induced by placental hormones entering the foetal circulation; other implicated hormones include progesterone, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor, oestrogens, prolactin, adrenal corticoids and triidothyronine.

Mammary stem cells and progenitors do not express receptors for hormones, and hormone-positive cells generally do not proliferate.

The microenvironment plays an important role in tissue homeostasis, cancer progression and metastasis.

To fully understand the defects leading to breast cancer, it is essential to decipher the mechanisms that regulate normal mammary development and morphogenesis.

Despite the considerable advancements made in the field, our understanding of the complex cascade of signals between neighbouring cells of developing tissues and the role of the matrix microenvironment is still largely lacking.

Moreover, the same general processes, from proliferation to invasion, that take place during normal mammary development, also occur in malignant disease.

The identification of mechanisms and genes that govern stem and progenitor cell expansion, or that determine daughter cell fate will be of crucial interest for understanding breast cancer diversity and ultimately improving treatment options.

Prof. Dr. Martine Berliere
Prof. Dr. Christine Galant
Guest Editors

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• breast development
• breast cancer
• interactions between stroma and epithelial cells
• hormone receptors
• stem cells
• progenitors