ACCELERATION OF MAMMARY-CANCER DEVELOPMENT BY GRAFTING OF FETAL MAMMARY MESENCHYMES IN C3H MICE

  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 70  (4) , 459-466
Abstract
Transplantation of fetal mammary gland mesenchyme into mammary glands of 2-mo.-old syngeneic virgin mice resulted in focal reenactment of events that probably normally occur during fetal and early postnatal development of the mammary gland. Portions of the recipient''s mammary duct system in contact with the fetal mammary mesenchyme underwent branching and proliferation in a pattern resembling that of rudimentary mammary gland development. This process occurred in C3H mice regardless of whether or not the milk-transmitted mammary tumor virus (MTV-S) was present. In mice carrying MTV-S, mammary cancers of types A and B appeared earlier and more frequently in the mammary glands that had received transplants of fetal mammary mesenchyme than in the glands that received no fetal mesenchyme. Some of the smaller cancers developed directly from portions of the mammary gland interacting with fetal mammary mesenchyme, without preformation of typical hyperplastic alveolar nodules. In C3H mice not carrying MTV-S, cancers did not appear in the similarly treated mammary glands. Non-hormonal and probably non-viral factors that stimulate focal proliferation in the mammary duct system resulting from transplantation of fetal mesenchymes seem to eventually accelerate local development of mammary cancers.

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