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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia. 2020 Apr 22;25(2):85–102. doi: 10.1007/s10911-020-09449-0

Figure 2: The role of pluripotency factors during normal mammary gland development, tumor initiation and breast cancer metastasis.

Figure 2:

Expression of pluripotency factors including SOX2, NANOG, OCT4 and KLF4, as well as cell-fate regulators such as SOX9 and SOX10 are associated with, and promote the maintenance of, putative multipotent MaSC populations. As mammary gland development progresses, multipotent MaSCs further differentiate into bipotent progenitors that can give rise to more specialized unipotent basal and/or luminal progenitors that function to properly develop and maintain the mammary epithelium. Studies suggest that breast cancer stem cells (CSCs) can arise from either multipotent MaSCs or progenitor populations. Often breast CSCs express similar pluripotency and cell-fate regulators as normal mammary multipotent stem and progenitor populations. These critical developmental factors remain important as primary breast tumors become metastatic, where it has been shown that pluripotency factors such as cMYC, SOX2, OCT4 and NANOG promote dedifferentiation (EMT), escape from the primary site and establishment/colonization of secondary sites. Long-Term Repopulating Stem Cells, LT-RCs. Short-Term Repopulating Cells, ST-RCs. The red lightning symbol represents oncogenic events that lead to the transformation of normal stem/progenitor populations to CSCs.