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Aberrant luminal progenitors as the candidate target population for basal tumor development in BRCA1 mutation carriers

Nature Medicine volume 15, pages 907–913 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Basal-like breast cancers arising in women carrying mutations in the BRCA1 gene, encoding the tumor suppressor protein BRCA1, are thought to develop from the mammary stem cell. To explore early cellular changes that occur in BRCA1 mutation carriers, we have prospectively isolated distinct epithelial subpopulations from normal mammary tissue and preneoplastic specimens from individuals heterozygous for a BRCA1 mutation. We describe three epithelial subsets including basal stem/progenitor, luminal progenitor and mature luminal cells. Unexpectedly, we found that breast tissue from BRCA1 mutation carriers harbors an expanded luminal progenitor population that shows factor-independent growth in vitro. Moreover, gene expression profiling revealed that breast tissue heterozygous for a BRCA1 mutation and basal breast tumors were more similar to normal luminal progenitor cells than any other subset, including the stem cell–enriched population. The c-KIT tyrosine kinase receptor (encoded by KIT) emerged as a key marker of luminal progenitor cells and was more highly expressed in BRCA1-associated preneoplastic tissue and tumors. Our findings suggest that an aberrant luminal progenitor population is a target for transformation in BRCA1-associated basal tumors .

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Figure 1: CD49f and EpCAM define distinct subpopulations in the human mammary epithelium.
Figure 2: CD49fhiEpCAM− cells have in vivo repopulating capacity.
Figure 3: Luminal progenitor cells from BRCA1 mutation carriers show factor-independent growth in vitro.
Figure 4: Comparison of gene expression profiles of normal human mammary epithelial and stromal subsets with the major subtypes of breast cancer and with preneoplastic tissue from BRCA1 mutation carriers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Stoev and K. Johnson for excellent animal husbandry, S. Mihajlovic and E. Tsui for expert assistance with histology and F. Battye and his colleagues for expert help in the flow cytometry lab. We thank J. Sambrook, E. McGowan, E. Musgrove and J. Adams for invaluable discussions and R. Reddel (Children's Medical Research Institute) for hTERT-immortalized fibroblasts. We thank K.U. Wagner (University of Nebraska Medical Center) for MMTV-Cre mice and A. Parlow (National Hormone and Pituitary Program, US National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases) for prolactin. We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable contribution of numerous patients, surgeons, pathologists and tissue bank coordinators, and we thank A. Willems, E. Niedermayr, all kConFab research staff and Family Cancer Clinics and Clinical Follow-Up Study for their contributions to the kConFab resource, as well as the many families who contribute to kConFab. This work was supported by the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the US National Breast Cancer Foundation, the US Department of Defense, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Australian Stem Cell Centre, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation and the Victorian Cancer Biobank. kConFab is supported by grants from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Cancer Councils of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, and the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia.

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Author notes

  1. Elgene Lim, François Vaillant, Juliet D French, Melissa A Brown, Jane E Visvader and Geoffrey J Lindeman: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Elgene Lim, François Vaillant, Di Wu, Natasha C Forrest, Bhupinder Pal, Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, David E Gyorki, Teresa Ward, Gordon K Smyth, Jane E Visvader & Geoffrey J Lindeman

  2. The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Elgene Lim, Di Wu, David E Gyorki & Geoffrey J Lindeman

  3. Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Adam H Hart

  4. The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Audrey Partanen, Frank Feleppa & Geoffrey J Lindeman

  5. Children's Medical Research Institute, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia

    Lily I Huschtscha

  6. Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Heather J Thorne, Stephen B Fox & Max Yan

  7. The School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Juliet D French & Melissa A Brown

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Consortia

kConFab

Contributions

E.L., F.V. and N.C.F. conducted most of the experiments and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. D.W. and G.K.S. performed the bioinformatic analyses and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. B.P, A.H.H. and M.-L.A.-L. performed RNA studies. D.E.G. and T.W. contributed to tissue preparation, immunohistochemistry and cell culture. F.F. helped optimize and performed some of the immunohistochemistry. A.P., H.J.T. and kConFab helped organize the accrual of the human breast tissue material. L.I.H. generated the hTERT-immortalized fibroblasts used for xenotransplantation studies. S.B.F. and M.Y. contributed to c-KIT staining and scoring. J.D.F. and M.A.B. contributed to the Brca1 experiments in mice. J.E.V. and G.J.L. conceptualized the study, contributed to study design and drafted and finalized the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jane E Visvader or Geoffrey J Lindeman.

Additional information

The Kathleen Cuningham Consortium for Research into Familial Breast Cancer.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Tables 1–4 and Supplementary Figs. 1–9 (PDF 2755 kb)

Supplementary Table 5

MaSC-enriched signature (XLS 300 kb)

Supplementary Table 6

Luminal progenitor gene signature (XLS 90 kb)

Supplementary Table 7

Luminal mature gene signature (XLS 138 kb)

Supplementary Table 8

Stroma signature (XLS 214 kb)

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Lim, E., Vaillant, F., Wu, D. et al. Aberrant luminal progenitors as the candidate target population for basal tumor development in BRCA1 mutation carriers. Nat Med 15, 907–913 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2000

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