UC Irvine

Mammary gland development occurs mainly after birth and is composed of three successive stages: puberty, pregnancy and lactation, and involution. These developmental stages are associated with major tissue remodeling, including extensive changes in mammary epithelium, as well as surrounding stroma. Three-dimensional (3D) mammary organoid culture has become an important tool in mammary gland biology and enabled invaluable discoveries on pubertal mammary branching morphogenesis and breast cancer. However, a suitable 3D organoid model recapitulating key aspects of lactation and involution has been missing. Here, we describe a robust and straightforward mouse mammary organoid system modeling lactation and involution-like process, which can be applied to study mechanisms of physiological mammary gland lactation and involution as well as pregnancy-associated breast cancer.