Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
In a breakthrough that could greatly benefit breast cancer research, experts from the Helmholtz Center for Health and Environmental Research in Munich and a team of their German colleagues created miniature breasts in the laboratory.
As part of the work, which is detailed in the Friday edition of the journal Development, scientists led by Dr. Christina Scheel of the Nymphenburg Clinic for Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery created 3D organoid-structures which mimic the growth and development of actual human breasts.
Dr. Scheel’s team explained that they developed an assay through which cultured epithelial cells taken from a single patient’s breast were rebuilt into the architecture of the mammary gland. They used a transparent gel in which cells could divide and spread similarly to the way that breasts develop during puberty.
Due to their high cellular turnover, breasts contain stem cells which possess regenerative properties. However, breast cancer cells can adopt properties of stem cells in order to acquire aggressive traits. The newly-developed mini-breast models will help scientists learn how these aggressive traits arise by providing insight into the function of stem cells in a normal breast.
Searching for breast cancer treatments at the molecular level
By using their organoid assay, Dr. Scheel’s team observed that the physical properties of their environment play a key role in determining how cells with regenerative capacity behave. They found that as the gel became more rigid, it caused the cellular spread to increase, leading to what first author Jelena Linnemann referred to as “invasive growth.”
“Similar behavior was already observed in breast cancer cells,” she said in a statement. “Our results suggest that invasive growth in response to physical rigidity represents a normal process during mammary gland development that is exploited during tumor progression.”
The authors believe that by using their assay, they will be able to discern how these processes are controlled at the molecular level. In turn, this will allow them to use this information to help find a way to inhibit these processes in breast cancer patients. Furthermore, the team added that lab-grown mini-mammary gland will be a valuable tool because the cells come directly from patient tissue.
“This technological break-through provides the basis for many research projects, both those aimed to understand how breast cancer cells acquire aggressive traits, as well as to elucidate how adult stem cells function in normal regeneration,” concluded Dr. Scheel, who is also affiliated with the Institute of Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Center in Munich.
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