Morphology of telocytes from the mammary gland. A review
S. Hostiuc, I. Negoi, P. Perlea
Abstract: Telocytes are a novel type of cell, initially described by Popescu and Faussone Pellegrini. One of the first tissues in which telocytes,
named first named as interstitial Cajal-like cells (ICLCs) were studies was the mammary gland. The purpose of this synthetic review
is to summarize the main morphological characteristics of this cell type in the mammary gland. We interrogated the following
databases: PubMed, Clarivate Web of Science, and Scopus, by using the following keywords: “breast,” or ”mammary,” or “mamary”
AND “telocyte,” or “Cajal,” or “ICLC.” Breast telocytes respect the platinum ultrastructure standard for their identification. However,
immunophenotypically, the results are less homogenous, with various studies showing different characteristics of these cells,
which could be caused by the fact that there is more than one cell type with telocyte-like morphology in the breast, the fact
that breast tissue can be caught in different stages activity, or simply due to issues generated by the detection technique.
More studies should be performed to reveal the cause of this immune variability, and especially of the roles of these cellular
types in the normal physiology and physiopathology of the mammary gland, maybe with an emphasis on breast cancer.
DOI:10.18643/gieu.2018.36