Targeting distinct apoptotic pathways in mammary gland involution

细胞生长和分裂产生更多的细胞。在胚胎的生长过程中，为了在成年动物中发挥正常功能，某些细胞必须被移除。肢体发育就是一个有趣的例子。鸭子有蹼足，但人类胚胎在出生前也有蹼手指和脚趾。手指之间的皮肤细胞是通过诱导它们死亡来移除的。这是一个正常的过程。然而，有时事情会出错，要么是产生了太多的细胞，要么是错误类型的细胞。偶尔，在复制细胞DNA的过程中也会出现错误，这可能导致癌症的发展。为了消除这个问题，并移除不再需要的正常细胞，所有细胞都通过激活一系列步骤获得了杀死自己的能力，这些步骤导致细胞的组成部分被分解并打包成小碎片。这些细胞碎片随后被专业的吞噬细胞吞噬，吞噬细胞的工作是清除死细胞和清除碎片，以防止对周围组织的进一步损害。这被称为程序性细胞死亡或细胞凋亡。细胞凋亡在哺乳的乳房中非常重要，当婴儿断奶，不再需要母乳喂养时，细胞凋亡需要移除产奶细胞。我们一直在研究发生在乳腺细胞中的凋亡事件以及这些事件是如何被控制的。我们发现转录因子Stat6与DNA结合，诱导特定基因的转录，对启动细胞凋亡很重要。在这个项目中，我们的目标是确定Stat6控制的基因以及它们如何参与杀死乳腺细胞。

Cells grow and divide to produce more cells. During growth of an embryo, certain cells have to be removed for proper function in the adult animal. An interesting example is seen in limb development. Ducks have webbed feet but human embryos also have webbed fingers and toes before they are born. The skin cells between the digits is removed by inducing them to die. This is a normal process. However, sometimes things go wrong and either too many cells, or the wrong type of cells, are made. Occasionally also, mistakes are made in copying the cell's DNA and this could cause cancer to develop. In order to eliminate this problem, and to remove normal cells that are no longer required, all cells have acquired the ability to kill themselves by activating a series of steps that result in the components of the cell being dismantled and packaged into small fragments. This cellular debris is then eaten up, or engulfed, by professional phagocytes whose job is to remove dead cells and clear away debris to prevent further damage to the surrounding tissue. This is called programmed cell death, or apoptosis. Apoptosis is very important in the lactating breast where it is needed to remove the milk producing cells when the baby is weaned and no longer needs breast feeding. We have been studying the apoptotic events that take place in breast cells and how these are controlled. We have found that the transcription factor Stat6, which binds to DNA to induce transcription of specific genes, is important for initiating apoptosis. In this project, we aim to identify genes are controlled by Stat6 and how they are involved in killing mammary cells.