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Mammary lineage tracing: the coming of age

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Abstract

Identification and characterization of the normal epithelial lineages in the mammary gland is a fundamental step in understanding both development and cellular origin of cancer. In contrast to other tissues where lineage tracing has been widely accepted as a method of choice for dissecting the stem cell hierarchy, mammary gland has long remained a challenge due to its unique developmental and topological features. Recent advances in high-resolution single-cell imaging, combined with the use of inducible Cre-recombinase and in situ cell ablation, have provided unprecedented insight into mammary epithelial cell composition and function. Here, we briefly summarize and compare different mammary gland lineage tracing strategies, examine associated caveats and discuss future challenges and opportunities.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Radmile Matejcic 2, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Sanja Sale & Kresimir Pavelic

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  1. Sanja Sale
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  2. Kresimir Pavelic
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Correspondence to Sanja Sale.

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Sale, S., Pavelic, K. Mammary lineage tracing: the coming of age. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 72, 1577–1583 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-014-1817-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-014-1817-7

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