Phenotypic plasticity in normal breast derived epithelial cells

Background Normal, healthy human breast tissue from a variety of volunteer donors has become available for research thanks to the establishment of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center (KTB). Multiple epithelial (K-HME) and stromal cells (K-HMS) were established from the donated tissue. Explant culture was utilized to isolate the cells from pieces of breast tissue. Selective media and trypsinization were employed to select either epithelial cells or stromal cells. The primary, non-transformed epithelial cells, the focus of this study, were characterized by immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and in vitro cell culture.