New 'knock-out' gene model provides molecular clues to bre...(except mammary tissue allowing scientist...),Health
except mammary tissue, allowing scientists to study the receptors role in breast development and breast cancer.
Using this model, Khans team found that knocking out the gene only in mammary tissue resulted in abnormalities that compromised milk production in the nursing female. This suggests that estrogen expression is essential for normal duct development during puberty, pregnancy and lactation.
Khan and his coworkers report the creation of this model and its potential implications in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Sept. 4, 2007, followed by the print issue Sept. 11, 2007. The study directly refutes previous research, which suggests that estrogen receptor in epithelial cells was not essential to normal mammary gland development.
Mammary tissue is made up of two cell typesstromal cells, which give the tissue structure, and epithelial cells, which make up the lining of the mammary gland and become cancerous in the majority of breast cancers.
Unlike other organs in the body, the mammary glands develop after birth in response to increases in circulating hormones. This triggers growth of a network of branched ducts throughout the breast tissue that do not change again until a woman becomes pregnant.
Even though the relationship between the estrogen receptor and breast cancer is well established, we still know very little about the receptors mechanism of action, explains Khan, corresponding author of the study. Unless we study those mechanisms more closely, improved strategies for breast cancer treatments will not be possible.
Premenopausal women with breast cancer are currently given five years of tamoxifen, a drug that blocks the estrogen receptor action in cancer cells, to prevent recurrence. Studies have shown that the drug reduces recurrence in 40 percent of the women who take it, but Khan says many women eventually develop resistance to the drug.
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| Contact: Amanda Harper amanda.harper@uc.edu 513-558-4657 University of Cincinnati Source:Eurekalert |
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