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Apoptosis in the Estrous and Menstrual Cycles

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Abstract

In the absence of pregnancy, the adult mammarygland is subjected to cyclic fluctuations of hormonalstimulation that constitute the estrous and menstrualcycles. The mammary epithelium responds to these systemic hormonal changes by regionalproliferation, differentiation and cell death byapoptosis. The fact that the mammary epithelial responseinvolves only a minor subset of the epithelial cellsimplies a delicate local control of epithelial cellfate resulting in either cell death or survival.Evidence gleaned from descriptive data suggests that theapoptosis-related genes of the Bcl-2 gene family, tissue remodeling genes, protein tyrosine kinases andmaster genes of the homeotic gene cluster may beinvolved in determining epithelial cell fate during theestrous cycle.

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Authors
  1. Anne-Catherine Andres
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  2. Robert Strange
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Andres, AC., Strange, R. Apoptosis in the Estrous and Menstrual Cycles. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia 4, 221–228 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018737510695

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