Probes for KRT8

Bone metastasis is a lethal and incurable disease. It is the result of the dissemination of cancer cells to the bone marrow. Due to the difficulty in sampling and detection, few techniques exist to efficiently and consistently detect and quantify disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in the bone marrow of cancer patients. Because mouse models represent a crucial tool with which to study cancer metastasis, we developed a novel method for the simple selection-free detection and quantification of bone marrow DTCs in mice. We have used this protocol to detect human and murine DTCs in xenograft, syngeneic, and genetically engineered mouse models. We are able to detect and quantify bone marrow DTCs in mice that do not have overt bone metastasis. This protocol is amenable not only for detection and quantification purposes but also to study the expression of markers of numerous biological processes or tissue-specificity.

The mammary gland consists of cells with gene expression patterns reflecting their cellular origins, function, and spatiotemporal context. However, knowledge of developmental kinetics and mechanisms of lineage specification is lacking. We address this significant knowledge gap by generating a single-cell transcriptome atlas encompassing embryonic, postnatal, and adult mouse mammary development. From these data, we map the chronology of transcriptionally and epigenetically distinct cell states and distinguish fetal mammary stem cells (fMaSCs) from their precursors and progeny. fMaSCs show balanced co-expression of factors associated with discrete adult lineages and a metabolic gene signature that subsides during maturation but reemerges in some human breast cancers and metastases. These data provide a useful resource for illuminating mammary cell heterogeneity, the kinetics of differentiation, and developmental correlates of tumorigenesis.