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Transcriptional changes in the mammary gland during lactation revealed by single cell sequencing of cells from human milk.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Twigger, Alecia-Jane  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4361-817X
Engelbrecht, Lisa K 
Bach, Karsten 
Schultz-Pernice, Isabel  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-501X
Pensa, Sara 

Abstract

Under normal conditions, the most significant expansion and differentiation of the adult mammary gland occurs in response to systemic reproductive hormones during pregnancy and lactation to enable milk synthesis and secretion to sustain the offspring. However, human mammary tissue remodelling that takes place during pregnancy and lactation remains poorly understood due to the challenge of acquiring samples. We report here single-cell transcriptomic analysis of 110,744 viable breast cells isolated from human milk or non-lactating breast tissue, isolated from nine and seven donors, respectively. We found that human milk largely contains epithelial cells belonging to the luminal lineage and a repertoire of immune cells. Further transcriptomic analysis of the milk cells identified two distinct secretory cell types that shared similarities with luminal progenitors, but no populations comparable to hormone-responsive cells. Taken together, our data offers a reference map and a window into the cellular dynamics that occur during human lactation and may provide further insights on the interplay between pregnancy, lactation and breast cancer.

Description

Funder: Wellcome Trust

Keywords

Breast, Cell Culture Techniques, Three Dimensional, Cells, Cultured, Cluster Analysis, Female, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Regulatory Networks, Humans, Immune System, Lactation, Mammary Glands, Human, Milk, Human, Pregnancy, Single-Cell Analysis, Stromal Cells

Journal Title

Nat Commun

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-1723
2041-1723

Volume Title

13

Publisher

Nature Research
Sponsorship
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/S006745/1)
Medical Research Council (MR/S036059/1)
Cancer Research UK (DCRPGF\100010)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P020259/1)
Medical Research Council (MC_PC_17230)
Breast Cancer Now (2017MAYPR907)
UKRI-MRC project grant ((MR/S036059/1) UKRI-BBSRC project grant (BB/S006745/1) Breast Cancer Now Project Grant (2017MayPR907) CRUK Programme Foundation Award (DCRPGF\100010)