Enhanced growth medium and method for culturing human mammary epithelial cells

Patent Number: 4423145

This patent covers ways of growing mammary epithelial tissue in vitro. It teaches that such cells can be grown through dissociating stromal cells using enzymez and mechanical means so as to obtain a population of clumps of epithelial cells. The epithelial cells are then grown in a conditioned media that is either conditioned by human fetal intestine epithelial cells or human bladder epithelial cells. The patent claims, amongst other things, methods of determining toxicity of a compound in vitro using these cells, as well as "a growth medium, comprising insulin, cholera toxin and conditioned medium obtained from a culture of cells selected from the group consisting of human fetal intestine epithelial cells and human bladder epithelial cells"

View this patent on the USPTO website.