Submitted by Administrator on Tue, 17/12/2013 - 10:01
25 May 2012
Study by Professor Christine Watson and colleagues look at cell fate specification in mammary stem and progenitor cells.
In this study the authors identify a novel transcriptional regulator, Zfp157, as a target of Stat6 and demonstrate that Zfp157 regulates mammary progenitor cells by deleting Zfp157 in luminal cells, which resulted in a dramatic shift in the cellular composition of the mammary gland.
Cell fate specification in mammary stem and progenitor cells is not well understood. In this study by Watson and colleagues, the authors identify a novel transcriptional regulator, Zfp157, as a target of Stat6. The authors demonstrate that Zfp157 regulates mammary progenitor cells by deleting Zfp157 in luminal cells, which resulted in a dramatic shift in the cellular composition of the mammary gland. In addition, the authors found that Gata-3 is not an essential regulator of mammary gland morphogenesis and luminal cell differentiation as previously suggested, but is required simply to suppress expression of Zfp157. Thus, this study significantly advances our understanding of the regulation of multipotent alveolar progenitor lineage commitment.
The full article can be read here.