Cellular Changes Involved in Conversion of Normal to Malignant Breast:
Importance of the Stromal Reaction.
R[stod]onnov-Jessen, Lone, Ole W. Petersen, and Mina J. Bissell.
Structural Cell Biology Unit, The Panum Institute, Unviersity of
Copenhagen; Department of Tumor Endocrinolgoy, The Danish Cancer Society,
Copenhagen, Denmark; and Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory,
Berkeley, California.
APStracts 2:0004P, 1996.
ABSTRACT
Reciprocal interactions between epithelium and mesenchyme mediate crucial
aspects of embryonic development and direct the coordinated organogenesis,
correct spatial orientation, and the timely expression of functional activity
consistent with physiological demands (111, 206, 270, 453, 454). The
mesenchymal equivalent in the adult organism is the stroma, i.e., the loose
connective tissue that is separated from the epithelial compartment by an
intact basement membrane. In carcinomas, the cellular organization is
dramatically changed, and the stroma is extensively modified. The basement
membrane is penetrated in a process of degradation and/or decreased synthesis,
and direct contact between tumor cells and the surrounding stroma coincides
with neovascularization, inflammatory cell influx, and extensive remodeling of
extracellular matrix (33, 146, 176, 296, 297, 324). In this review, we
highlight our current knowledge of tumor cell stroma interactions in the
mammary gland with particular emphasis on cellular origins and functional
phenotypes. We focus both on normal mammary gland and breast tumors and on
culture systems developed to dissect individual aspects of cell-cell and cell-
extracellular matrix interactions.
APS Manuscript Number P-19-5.
Article publication scheduled January 1996 Physiological Reviews.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 22 January 96