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In Vitro Analysis of Breast Cancer Cell Line Tumourspheres and Primary Human Breast Epithelia Mammospheres Demonstrates Inter- and Intrasphere Heterogeneity

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, June 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (89th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
3 news outlets

Citations

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60 Dimensions

Readers on

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166 Mendeley
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Title
In Vitro Analysis of Breast Cancer Cell Line Tumourspheres and Primary Human Breast Epithelia Mammospheres Demonstrates Inter- and Intrasphere Heterogeneity
Published in
PLOS ONE, June 2013
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0064388
Pubmed ID
Authors

Chanel E. Smart, Brian J. Morrison, Jodi M. Saunus, Ana Cristina Vargas, Patricia Keith, Lynne Reid, Leesa Wockner, Marjan Askarian Amiri, Debina Sarkar, Peter T. Simpson, Catherine Clarke, Chris W. Schmidt, Brent A. Reynolds, Sunil R. Lakhani, J. Alejandro Lopez

Abstract

Mammosphere and breast tumoursphere culture have gained popularity as in vitro assays for propagating and analysing normal and cancer stem cells. Whether the spheres derived from different sources or parent cultures themselves are indeed single entities enriched in stem/progenitor cells compared to other culture formats has not been fully determined. We surveyed sphere-forming capacity across 26 breast cell lines, immunophenotyped spheres from six luminal- and basal-like lines by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry and compared clonogenicity between sphere, adherent and matrigel culture formats using in vitro functional assays. Analyses revealed morphological and molecular intra- and inter-sphere heterogeneity, consistent with adherent parental cell line phenotypes. Flow cytometry showed sphere culture does not universally enrich for markers previously associated with stem cell phenotypes, although we found some cell-line specific changes between sphere and adherent formats. Sphere-forming efficiency was significantly lower than adherent or matrigel clonogenicity and constant over serial passage. Surprisingly, self-renewal capacity of sphere-derived cells was similar/lower than other culture formats. We observed significant correlation between long-term-proliferating-cell symmetric division rates in sphere and adherent cultures, suggesting functional overlap between the compartments sustaining them. Experiments with normal primary human mammary epithelia, including sorted luminal (MUC1(+)) and basal/myoepithelial (CD10(+)) cells revealed distinct luminal-like, basal-like and mesenchymal entities amongst primary mammospheres. Morphological and colony-forming-cell assay data suggested mammosphere culture may enrich for a luminal progenitor phenotype, or induce reversion/relaxation of the basal/mesenchymal in vitro selection occurring with adherent culture. Overall, cell line tumourspheres and primary mammospheres are not homogenous entities enriched for stem cells, suggesting a more cautious approach to interpreting data from these assays and careful consideration of its limitations. Sphere culture may represent an alternative 3-dimensional culture system which rather than universally 'enriching' for stem cells, has utility as one of a suite of functional assays that provide a read-out of progenitor activity.

Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 166 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 2 1%
Portugal 1 <1%
France 1 <1%
South Africa 1 <1%
Italy 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Luxembourg 1 <1%
Unknown 158 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 40 24%
Researcher 28 17%
Student > Master 20 12%
Student > Bachelor 14 8%
Student > Postgraduate 10 6%
Other 29 17%
Unknown 25 15%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 57 34%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 36 22%
Medicine and Dentistry 17 10%
Chemistry 4 2%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 4 2%
Other 18 11%
Unknown 30 18%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 22. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 June 2013.
All research outputs
#1,420,245
of 22,712,476 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#18,612
of 193,919 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#12,714
of 197,505 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#466
of 4,596 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,712,476 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 193,919 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 197,505 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4,596 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.