%0 Journal Article %J Stem Cell Reports %D 2015 %T A Long-Lived Luminal Subpopulation Enriched with Alveolar Progenitors Serves as Cellular Origin of Heterogeneous Mammary Tumors %A Tao, Luwei %A van Bragt, Maaike P A %A Li, Zhe %K Animals %K Breast Neoplasms %K Cell Lineage %K Epithelial Cells %K Female %K Humans %K Integrin beta3 %K Mammary Glands, Animal %K Mice %K Pregnancy %K Stem Cells %X It has been shown that the mammary luminal lineage could be maintained by luminal stem cells or long-lived progenitors, but their identity and role in breast cancer remain largely elusive. By lineage analysis using Wap-Cre mice, we found that, in nulliparous females, mammary epithelial cells (MECs) genetically marked by Wap-Cre represented a subpopulation of CD61+ luminal progenitors independent of ovarian hormones for their maintenance. Using a pulse-chase lineage-tracing approach based on Wap-Cre adenovirus (Ad-Wap-Cre), we found that Ad-Wap-Cre-marked nulliparous MECs were enriched with CD61+ alveolar progenitors (APs) that gave rise to CD61- alveolar luminal cells during pregnancy/lactation and could maintain themselves long term. When transformed by different oncogenes, they could serve as cells of origin of heterogeneous mammary tumors. Thus, our study revealed a type of long-lived AP within the luminal lineage that may serve as the cellular origin of multiple breast cancer subtypes. %B Stem Cell Reports %V 5 %P 60-74 %8 2015 Jul 14 %G eng %N 1 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26120057?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1016/j.stemcr.2015.05.014