Promotion of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transformation by Hyaluronan; Annual summary rept. 1 Jul 2003-30 Jun 2007

摘要

The homeostasis observed in an organ is a consequence of a coordinated multidirectional communication between the epithelium and its microenvironment through physical and biochemical signals. An interruption of this communication can lead to the formation of cancer. One of the major components of mammary gland microenvironment, also called stroma, is hyaluronan (HA). It has been proposed that HA may induce malignant transformation in normal cells through interaction with its receptors. However, HA's function during normal mammary gland development is still unknown and we therefore wanted to elucidate its function during normal development before taking a closer look at its possible functions during breast cancer.