FIND ARTICLE

Volume: 
Issue: 
1
Date of issue: 
The mammary gland is an organ comprised of branched ductal network terminated by secretory alveoli and embedded in mesenchymal stroma. Mammary alveoli, built by myoepithelial and epithelial cells with apico basal polarity, obtain their functional differentiation only during lactogenesis. For this reason they represent a good model for studies on differentiation process of epithelium. The emergence of three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems, based on the use of reconstituted basement membrane (rBM), commercially available as Matrigel, enabled to recreate the in vivo conditions, and brought a great progress in this area of research. The present review summarizes the latest achievements obtained with the use of 3D culture system of mammary gland acini. The results of these studies clearly indicate the important role of extracellular matrix (ECM) components in the regulation of polarization and functional differentiation of mammary luminal epithelium.
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The Editorial Board
Andrzej Łukaszyk - przewodniczący, Zofia Bielańska-Osuchowska, Szczepan Biliński, Mieczysław Chorąży, Aleksander Koj, Włodzimierz Korochoda, Leszek Kuźnicki, Aleksandra Stojałowska, Lech Wojtczak

Editorial address:
Katedra i Zakład Histologii i Embriologii Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Poznaniu, ul. Święcickiego 6, 60-781 Poznań, tel. +48 61 8546453, fax. +48 61 8546440, email: mnowicki@ump.edu.pl

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