title: A 3D Fibroblast-Epithelium Co-culture Model for Understanding Microenvironmental Role in Branching Morphogenesis of the Mammary Gland.
abstract: The mammary gland consists of numerous tissue compartments, including mammary epithelium, an array of stromal cells, and the extracellular matrix (ECM). Bidirectional interactions between the epithelium and its surrounding stroma are essential for proper mammary gland development and homeostasis, whereas their deregulation leads to developmental abnormalities and cancer. To study the relationships between the epithelium and the stroma, development of models that could recapitulate essential aspects of these interacting systems in vitro has become necessary. Here we describe a three-dimensional (3D) co-culture assay and show that the addition of fibroblasts to mammary organoid cultures promotes the epithelium to undergo branching morphogenesis, thus allowing the role of the stromal microenvironment to be examined in this essential developmental process.
authors: Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK. zkoledova@gmail.com.|Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Kamenice 3, Brno, 625 00, Czech Republic. zkoledova@gmail.com.
authors: Zuzana
authors: Z
authors: Koledova
authors: Department of Anatomy and Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0452, USA. lvpf@shanghaitech.edu.cn.|School of Life Science and Technology, Shanghai Tech University, 319 Yueyang Road, Shanghai, 200031, China. lvpf@shanghaitech.edu.cn.
authors: Pengfei
authors: P
authors: Lu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D060833:Cellular Microenvironment / Q000502:physiology*; D018920:Coculture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D004848:Epithelium / Q000502:physiology*; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology*; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000166:cytology*; D051379:Mice; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000166:cytology
keywords: 3D culture; Branching morphogenesis; Extracellular matrix; Fibroblasts; Mammary epithelium; Matrigel; Organoids; Organotypic assay; Paracrine signaling