Mammosphere culture of metastatic breast cancer cells enriches for tumorigenic breast cancer cells

Breast Cancer Research

Table 2 Tumorigenicity of cells from pleural effusion mammospheres

Sample	Average size of mammospheres (μm)	Percentage of CD44⁺/CD24^low/- cells	Tumorigenicity
PE88	20	37	0/3^a
PE62	20	13.2	0/3
PE6	30	1.5	0/3
PE43	50	9.9	0/3
06PE8	70	70.6	4/7
06PE6	100	15.3	1/3
PE14	100	All cells CD24^- and CD44^-	5/7
PE66	130	6.8	1/3

Mice were injected with 5,000 cells from disrupted mammospheres as described in Materials and methods. ^aThe ratio of mice developing tumours over mice injected. PE, pleural effusion.

ISSN: 1465-542X