Using transplantation and lineage-tracing strategies, Yi Zeng and colleagues have identified protein C receptor (Procr), a target for Wnt signalling proteins in the mammary gland, as a marker of mammary stem cells. Procr is exclusively expressed in a subset of the basal/stem-cell-enriched population of mouse mammary glands. The identification of this subpopulation of multipotent mammary stem cells could be important in the understanding of initiation of breast cancer.
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