Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 314, Issue 5797, Pages 298-300Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1131000
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NCI NIH HHS [R37 CA064786, R01 CA057621-10, R01 CA064786, R01 CA064786-10, R01 CA057621, CA64786, CA57621] Funding Source: Medline
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01 GM072736, GM72736, R01 GM072736-05] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The treelike structures of many organs, including the mammary gland, are generated by branching morphogenesis, a reiterative process of branch initiation and invasion from a preexisting epithelium. Using a micropatterning approach to control the initial three-dimensional structure of mouse mammary epithelial tubules in culture, combined with an algorithm to quantify the extent of branching, we found that the geometry of tubules dictates the position of branches. We predicted numerically and confirm experimentally that branches initiate at sites with a local minimum in the concentration of autocrine inhibitory morphogens, such as transforming growth factor - beta. These results reveal that tissue geometry can control organ morphogenesis by defining the local cellular microenvironment, a finding that has relevance to control of invasion and metastasis.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available