Chapter 4 Human Breast Organ Culture Studies

This chapter demonstrates that normal human mammary epithelium can be maintained in organ culture for several months. It examines that the mammary epithelium retain its secretory characteristics and epidermoid potential and) the cellular outgrowth observed is primarily myoepithelial in origin. The chapter focuses on the role of hormones in maintaining human breast epithelium in long-term organ culture system. Two approaches described are: (1) a constant regimen of breast trophic hormones present at uniform levels throughout the culture period, and (2) a cycling hormone regimen—that is, varying levels of hormones present for weekly periods in an attempt to generally mimic the in viva menstrual cycle. The chapter reviews a few reports in which normal human breast tissue from various sources was grown. These previous studies were based primarily on short-term organ culture—3–6 days. There are only three reports in which organ cultures were analyzed for over one week. Barker and others (1964) described the cultural conditions and role of insulin played in maintaining human organ cultures for up to 12 days. The chapter discusses the perspectives in terms of current applications and findings and future studies of human breast organ culture.