Endocrine Abstracts

RANK and RANKL are essential for mammary gland development in mice. We demonstrated that RANK signalling promotes proliferation and impairs mammary epithelial differentiation in mice. RANK and RANKL expression is detected in breast cancer cells. MMTV-RANK acini show hallmarks of transformation in a RANKL dependent manner. After multiple pregnancies MMTV-RANK females spontaneously develop adenocarcinomas, and after DMBA (dimethylbenz(a)anthracene) and MPA (medroxiprogesterone) ...