ArticleCurrent biology : CB2021
Local accumulation of extracellular matrix regulates global morphogenetic patterning in the developing mammary gland.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Application of a uniaxial force by pulling the skin around the mammary gland may affect the orientation of the ducts and the length of the mammary ductal network: Findings from computational modeling and laboratory experiments.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Structural immunity: immune cells as architects of tissue barriers.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2026Review
- An in utero exposure to the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol affects the fat pad composition in post-natal mammary glands.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2026Article
- Developing Mammary Gland Models for Biomedical Applications.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Review
- Extracellular Matrix Viscoelasticity Regulates Mammary Branching Morphogenesis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Semaphorin-7A promotes macrophage-mediated mammary epithelial and ductal carcinoma in situ invasion.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2025Article
- Contractile fibroblasts form a transient niche for the branching mammary epithelium.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Shaping epithelial tissues by stem cell mechanics in development and cancer.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Review
- Basement membrane patterning by spatial deployment of a secretion-regulating protease.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Live imaging of the extracellular matrix with a glycan-binding fluorophore.Nature methods · 2025Article
- The Mechanics of Building Functional Organs.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2025Review
- Embryonic Mammary Gland Morphogenesis.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- The role of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity in development and disease.npj biological physics and mechanics · 2025Review
- Collagen signaling and matrix stiffness regulate multipotency in glandular epithelial stem cells in mice.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of assembly and remodelling of the extracellular matrix.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2024Review
- Imaging the extracellular matrix in live tissues and organisms with a glycan-binding fluorophore.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Spatial Engineering of Mammary Epithelial Cell Cultures with 3D Bioprinting Reveals Growth Control by Branch Point Proximity.Journal of mammary gland biology and neoplasia · 2024Article
- Extracellular matrix dynamics: A key regulator of cell migration across length-scales and systems.Current opinion in cell biology · 2024Review
- Fibroblast-Epithelium Co-culture Methods Using Epithelial Organoids and Cell Line-Derived Spheroids.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Fibroblast-induced mammary epithelial branching depends on fibroblast contractility.PLoS biology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The tree-like pattern of the mammary epithelium is formed during puberty through a process known as branching morphogenesis. Although mammary epithelial branching is stochastic and generates an epithelial tree with a random pattern of branches, the global orientation of the developing epithelium is predictably biased along the long axis of the gland. Here, we combine analysis of pubertal mouse mammary glands, a three-dimensional (3D)-printed engineered tissue model, and computational models of morphogenesis to investigate the origin and the dynamics of the global bias in epithelial orientation during pubertal mammary development. Confocal microscopy analysis revealed that a global bias emerges in the absence of pre-aligned networks of type I collagen in the fat pad and is maintained throughout pubertal development until the widespread formation of lateral branches. Using branching and annihilating random walk simulations, we found that the angle of bifurcation of terminal end buds (TEBs) dictates both the dynamics and the extent of the global bias in epithelial orientation. Our experimental and computational data demonstrate that a local increase in stiffness from the accumulation of extracellular matrix, which constrains the angle of bifurcation of TEBs, is sufficient to pattern the global orientation of the developing mammary epithelium. These data reveal that local mechanical properties regulate the global pattern of mammary epithelial branching and may provide new insight into the global patterning of other branched epithelia.
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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.