The Myothelia (Myoepithelial Cells)

Hamperl, Herwig

doi:10.1007/978-3-662-30514-0_3

Cited by 319 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…They are situated between acinar or ductal luminal cells and the basal lamina in a number of secretory glands such as breast, lacrimal, eccrine, and apocrine sweat glands and various salivary glands (3).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Monoclonal antibody that defines human myoepithelium.

Dairkee¹,

Blayney²,

Smith³

et al. 1985

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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We have isolated a mouse monoclonal antibody that, upon immunohistochemical localization in frozen sections, displays specificity for human myoepithelial cells in the resting mammary gland, sweat glands, and salivary glands. Furthermore, this antibody was strongly and homogeneously reactive with frozen sections of 3 of 60 breast carcinoma specimens. Using immunolocalization techniques in conjunction with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, we have determined that the reactivity of this monoclonal antibody is directed toward a 51,000-dalton keratin polypeptide. The potential uses of this antibody in the prognosis of human mammary carcinoma and in understanding the role of the myoepithelium in development and differentiation are discussed.Myoepithelial cells are derived from ectoderm and are known to exhibit both epithelial and mesenchymal characteristics (1, 2). They are situated between acinar or ductal luminal cells and the basal lamina in a number of secretory glands such as breast, lacrimal, eccrine, and apocrine sweat glands and various salivary glands (3).We report here on a monoclonal antibody directed toward a cytoskeletal keratin that is unique to the myoepithelial or "basal" layer of epithelial cells in human mammary ducts, sweat glands, and salivary glands. Using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting, we have found the apparent molecular weight of this basal epithelium-specific keratin to be 51,000 daltons. The antibody is generally nonreactive with luminal epithelium, stroma, muscle, fat, and vasculature. Therefore, it appears to be a useful tool in studying the role of the myoepithelium in the normal development of the breast, during lactation and involution, and in malignancy and metastasis.Recently, considerable advances have been made in tumor diagnosis by immunocytochemical typing of intermediate filaments. For example, carcinomas are characterized by antibodies to cytokeratins; sarcomas of muscle cells, by anti-desmin; nonmuscle sarcomas, by anti-vimentin; and gliomas, by anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein (for review, see ref. 4). The myoepithelium-specific monoclonal antibody described in this report has allowed us to define and characterize subclasses of human mammary carcinomas that would not be possible to distinguish by conventional techniques. The potential application of this antibody in the prognosis of human mammary carcinoma is discussed. MATERIALS AND METHODSImmunization. BALB/c mice raised under pathogen-free conditions were injected via subcutaneous or intravenous routes for 5 weeks at weekly intervals with whole-cell preparations of a secondary culture of an infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma. For each inoculation, 106 cells, which had been cultured as previously described (5), were prepared by scraping the monolayer with a rubber policeman into phosphate-buffered saline. Splenocytes from immunized animals were fused with SP2/0 mouse myeloma cells in the presence of polyethylene glycol (Mr 4000; Merck) by the procedure of Kohler and Milstein (6). Monocl...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Monoclonal antibody that defines human myoepithelium.

Dairkee¹,

Blayney²,

Smith³

et al. 1985

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Historically, a subgroup of aggressive breast carcinomas showing features of myoepithelial/ basal differentiation was identified by pathological methods (Hamperl, 1970;Dairkee et al, 1987;Raymond and Leong, 1989;Gould et al, 1990;Malzahn et al, 1998;Gusterson et al, 2005), but basal-like breast carcinomas only gained widespread interest after their rediscovery by microarray-based expression profile analysis (Perou et al, 2000;Sorlie et al, 2001;Sotiriou et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basal-like breast cancer and the BRCA1 phenotype

2006

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Breast cancers arising in germline carriers of BRCA1 mutations have a characteristic phenotype that has been shown in many studies to differentiate BRCA1 tumours from sporadic tumours. Recently, it has become clear that the characteristic phenotype of BRCA1 tumours is due to expression of the basal-like phenotype. We review these phenotypes, the evidence for BRCA1 pathway dysfunction in sporadic basal-like cancers, and discuss the clinical significance of the basal-like phenotype for cancer genetics and treatment.

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“…At the periphery, dark elongated fusiform nucleated cells rich in chromatin were present, which on occasions extended in toward the centre of the duct in a tongue-like manner. Preliminary electron-microscopic studies suggest that they are myoepithelial-type cells (Hamperl, 1970; data not shown). The remaining cells were epithelial and of two morphological types.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%