Reliable luminal estrogen receptor (ERα+) breast cancer models are limited. Here, the authors use patient derived breast epithelial and breast cancer explant cultures grown in several extracellular matrix scaffolds and show that ERα expression is regulated by matrix stiffness via stress-mediated p38 activation and H3K27me3-mediated epigenetic regulation.
- Pauliina M. Munne
- Lahja Martikainen
- Juha Klefström