ArticleStem cells (Dayton, Ohio)2012
Breastmilk is a novel source of stem cells with multilineage differentiation potential.
Article in Stem cells (Dayton, Ohio), 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 128 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
128 citing papers in PubMed, 251 citations in OpenAlex.
- Testing the feasibility and safety of feeding preterm infants fresh mother's own milk in the NICU: A pilot study.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Maternal Endocrine and Vascular Perturbations Reprogram the Transcriptomic and Secretory Profile of Perinatal Stem Cells: A Comparative Study of Umbilical Cord-Derived Stem Cell UC-MSCs and Human Milk-Derived Stem Cell MM-MSCs.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Microchimerism: The Hidden Cellular Dialogue Between Mother and Fetal That Shapes Lifelong Immunity.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Dysregulated Efferocytosis and Immune Microenvironment in High Somatic Cell Count Dairy Cows.Journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition · 2026Article
- "Breast is Best": does this also apply to neonatal neuroprotection?Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Human milk: insights on cell composition, organoids and emerging applications.Pediatric research · 2026Review
- Human Milk MiRNA Acts on Infections in Both the Maternal Body and the Child During Breastfeeding.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The stem cell potential of bovine milk: a comparative study of colostrum and mature milk.Histochemistry and cell biology · 2026Article
- Neutrophils blend innate and adaptive immunity in early breast milk.Cellular & molecular biology letters · 2026Article
- Higher expression of SOX1, miR-155, and miR-21 in the colostrum of SARS-CoV-2-infected mothers.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- F-NEO-BRIGHT: feasibility and safety of intranasal fresh breast milk in neonatal encephalopathy.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- The role of pluripotency regulators in triple-negative breast cancer immune response.Frontiers in genetics · 2026Review
- Impact of lactation stage, maternal age, and parity on mammary epithelial cell populations in fresh milk.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Characterization and biological health implications of microRNAs from human milk and infant formulas.NPJ science of food · 2025Review
- Breast milk stem cells integrate into cellular remodeling and functional differentiation in the ischemic brain.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Equine Colostrum-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells: A Potential Resource for Veterinary Regenerative Medicine.Veterinary sciences · 2025Article
- Volumetric printed biomimetic scaffolds support in vitro lactation of human milk-derived mammary epithelial cells.Science advances · 2025Article
- Lifelong partners: Gut microbiota-immune cell interactions from infancy to old age.Mucosal immunology · 2025Review
- White Adipocyte Stem Cell Expansion Through Infant Formula Feeding: New Insights into Epigenetic Programming Explaining the Early Protein Hypothesis of Obesity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Body Fluid-Derived Stem Cells: Powering Innovative, Less-Invasive Cell Therapies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
68 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The mammary gland undergoes significant remodeling during pregnancy and lactation, which is fuelled by controlled mammary stem cell (MaSC) proliferation. The scarcity of human lactating breast tissue specimens and the low numbers and quiescent state of MaSCs in the resting breast have hindered understanding of both normal MaSC dynamics and the molecular determinants that drive their aberrant self-renewal in breast cancer. Here, we demonstrate that human breastmilk contains stem cells (hBSCs) with multilineage properties. Breastmilk cells from different donors displayed variable expression of pluripotency genes normally found in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). These genes included the transcription factors (TFs) OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, known to constitute the core self-renewal circuitry of hESCs. When cultured in the presence of mouse embryonic feeder fibroblasts, a population of hBSCs exhibited an encapsulated ESC-like colony morphology and phenotype and could be passaged in secondary and tertiary clonogenic cultures. While self-renewal TFs were found silenced in the normal resting epithelium, they were dramatically upregulated in breastmilk cells cultured in 3D spheroid conditions. Furthermore, hBSCs differentiated in vitro into cell lineages from all three germ layers. These findings provide evidence that breastmilk represents a novel and noninvasive source of patient-specific stem cells with multilineage potential and establish a method for expansion of these cells in culture. They also highlight the potential of these cells to be used as novel models to understand adult stem cell plasticity and breast cancer, with potential use in bioengineering and tissue regeneration.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.