title: Neglected aspect of the strategy for human breast diseases: trans-areolar drug delivery.
abstract: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. Oncoplastic surgery and partial-breast reconstruction have already developed to improve cosmetic outcomes. However, new strategies for breast diseases are still needed. The principles of evolutionary biology and phylogeny can help solve specific medical problems. But the phylogeny of human breast areola had not been researched ever since proposed. The breast areola has a unique phylogeny, it has all different types of skin glands and includes a few hairs towards the periphery. These skin appendages, including Montgomery's glands - whose miniature mammary acini are in the subcutaneous tissue - make the dermal microvascular "sink" phenomenon imperfect, resulting in that more drug molecules can penetrate into deeper tissue. Meanwhile, the wrinkled skin of the areola increases the total delivery area. Here, we emphasize that the human breast areola has the potential to increase transdermal drug delivery to the breast. We anticipate that our hypothesis may help to provide new, optimized therapeutic and prophylactic strategies for the human breast diseases.
authors: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
authors: Chao
authors: C
authors: Shao
authors: Aidong
authors: A
authors: Li
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: Dongbo
authors: D
authors: Xue
authors: Weihui
authors: W
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D042361:Mammary Glands, Human / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010802:Phylogeny