Stem Cell Reports (Jun 2014)

Growth Hormone Is Secreted by Normal Breast Epithelium upon Progesterone Stimulation and Increases Proliferation of Stem/Progenitor Cells

  • Sara Lombardi,
  • Gabriella Honeth,
  • Christophe Ginestier,
  • Ireneusz Shinomiya,
  • Rebecca Marlow,
  • Bharath Buchupalli,
  • Patrycja Gazinska,
  • John Brown,
  • Steven Catchpole,
  • Suling Liu,
  • Ariel Barkan,
  • Max Wicha,
  • Anand Purushotham,
  • Joy Burchell,
  • Sarah Pinder,
  • Gabriela Dontu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2014.05.005
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 6
pp. 780 – 793

Abstract

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Using in vitro and in vivo experimental systems and in situ analysis, we show that growth hormone (GH) is secreted locally by normal human mammary epithelial cells upon progesterone stimulation. GH increases proliferation of a subset of cells that express growth hormone receptor (GHR) and have functional properties of stem and early progenitor cells. In 72% of ductal carcinoma in situ lesions, an expansion of the cell population that expresses GHR was observed, suggesting that GH signaling may contribute to breast cancer development.