Gene expression profiles of normal mouse mammary cell subpopulations FACS sorted based on expression of biomarkers. Mus musculus

To delineate epithelial subpopulations in mouse mammary tissue, hematopoietic and endothelial cells were depleted from freshly isolated cell suspensions derived from mammary glands using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. The resultant Lin- population was fractionated into four distinct subpopulations using antibodies against CD29, CD24 and CD61. Based on the immunohistochemical phenotype, and in vivo and in vitro functional assays, these subpopulations were identified as fibroblast-containing stromal (CD29loCD24-), mammary stem cell (MaSC)-enriched (CD29hiCD24+CD61+), luminal progenitor (CD29loCD24+CD61+), and mature luminal (CD29loCD24+CD61-) cell subpopulations. Microarray profiling was used to derive gene expression signatures of these 4 subpopulations. The four mammary cell subpopulations were found to have distinct gene expression profiles. Overall design: Four mammary cell subpopulations from 3-5 pooled mouse tissues were analysed. MS is for the MaSC-enriched cell subpopulation. LP is for the Luminal Progenitor subpopulation. ML is for the Mature Luminal subpopulation.