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Figure 5 | Breast Cancer Research

Figure 5

From: An oestrogen-dependent model of breast cancer created by transformation of normal human mammary epithelial cells

Figure 5

Immunofluorescent staining of tumours harvested 35 days after injection of ERα/BMI1/TERT/MYC/CFP-transduced HMECs. (a-i) Matched sections from one region of a tumour; (j-l) matched sections from a different region. The haematoxylin/eosin staining (H&E) in (a) shows the formation of tumours with dense squamous islands and diffuse infiltrating regions. The antibodies used for immunofluorescence in (b-l) are indicated in the lower right corner of each panel. The cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) staining in (b) and keratin 18 (K18) staining in (i) show that the tumour cells are derived from the injected human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs; the anti-K18 antibody is human-specific). BMI1 staining in (c) and oestrogen receptor alpha (ERα) staining in (d), (f) and (j) show that the HMECs retain nuclear expression of the transgenes. In (d-f), (j) and (k) it can be seen that some cells expressing ERα are also Ki-67-positive; (g) and (l) show expression of the ERα target gene progesterone receptor (PGR) in the tumour cells. There is a tendency, seen in (j) and (l), for cells with higher ERα expression to have lower PGR expression. In (h) and (i) it can be seen that the tumour cells are positive for keratins. The arrows in (a), (h) and (i) show a group of K18-positive glandular cells within a squamous island.

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