MYC favors the onset of tumorigenesis by inducing epigenetic reprogramming of mammary epithelial cells towards a stem cell-like state [microarray]

We address the molecular mechanisms through which MYC promotes loss of cell identity and acquisition of stem cell-like traits, favouring the onset of tumorigenesis, by performing gene expression profile analyses in a transition from WT IMEC, IMEC over-expressing MYC and mammospeheres formed from IMEC-MYC (named M2). We then investigated the global gene expression profile of the fraction of cells hyper-activating the WNT pathway in M2 spheres, compared to the ones with low activation Total RNAs were extracted from log-phase WT IMEC, IMEC-MYC, M2 spheres and GFP+ and GFP- cells sorted from M2 spheres