Figure 3.

Effects of autophagy during normal and malignant mammary development. During healthy mammary cell differentiation, high levels of autophagy are needed to protect the cells from various insults such as metabolic and ROS-induced stress. On the other hand, the development of malignant tumors from tumor-initiating cells (TIC) requires low levels of autophagy, since high levels of autophagy maintain TIC dormancy by protecting from metabolic stress. In parallel, low autophagic activity stabilizes Pfkfb3 that promotes cell cycle progression and blocks apoptosis. Thus, high autophagic activity is required in benign mammary development, while low activity is necessary for malignant mammary development. Created with BioRender.com, accessed on 3 May 2021.