The role of ROMA a novel transcriptional regulator in mammary lineage determination.

成体组织需要干细胞来提供新的细胞来取代那些受损或破坏的细胞。例如，皮肤和肠道细胞每天都会被替换，肝脏和骨细胞可以在受伤后被替换。干细胞提供了一个细胞库，持续动物或人的一生，并用于提供快速分裂的祖细胞，以取代这些丢失或受损的细胞。成体干细胞的一个特征是它们很少分裂，通常在组织的特定部位发现。在乳腺中，已知存在干细胞，并且可能是成为乳腺肿瘤的细胞。然而，目前还不知道乳腺干细胞位于何处，尽管新技术已经允许这些细胞高度富集，从而允许它们的研究。我们最近发现，称为细胞因子的特定分泌因子可以影响干细胞和祖细胞在妊娠期间的生长，从而大量增加泌乳所需的分泌性产奶肺泡细胞。在我们的研究中，我们发现了一种新的蛋白质，我们命名为ROMA。我们假设ROMA可能是乳腺干细胞的主要调节因子。该项目的主要目标是进一步研究乳腺癌，并研究其在怀孕期间乳腺发育中的作用。我们还将确定由ROMA调控的基因。这个项目应该提供关于干细胞如何维持和诱导成为更分化的细胞的基本信息。这将对干细胞治疗和再生医学以及理解由干细胞衰竭引起的疾病产生重大影响。

Stem cells are required in adult tissues to provide new cells to replace those that are damaged or destroyed. For example, skin and gut cells are replaced on a daily basis and liver and bone cells can be replaced following injury. Stem cells provide a reservoir of cells that last for the lifetime of the animal or person and are used to provide the progenitor cells that divide rapidly to replace these lost or damaged cells. One feature of adult stem cells is that they divide very infrequently and are usually found in specific parts of the tissue. In the breast, stem cells are known to exist and may be the cells that become breast tumours. However, it is not known where the breast stem cells are located although new techniques have allowed these cells to be highly enriched, thus allowing their study. We have recently shown that specific secreted factors called cytokines can influence how stem and progenitor cells grow during pregnancy to provide the large increase in secretory milk-producing alveolar cells that are required for lactation. During our studies, we identified a novel protein that we have named ROMA. We hypothesise that ROMA may be a master regulator of mammary stem cells. The main objective of this project is to characterise ROMA further and investigate its role in the development of the mammary gland during pregnancy. We will also identify genes that are regulated by ROMA. This project should provide essential information on how stem cells are maintained and induced to become more differentiated cells. This will have major implications for stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine and for understanding diseases that arise from stem cell failure.