Immune cells helping to keep breast ducts healthy

This is a movie of a mammary gland duct (purple), surrounded by collagen fibres (pink) and immune cells called macrophages (yellow and blue). Macrophages are important for mammary gland formation and function. The yellow macrophages in this movie are breast-specific ductal macrophages. These cells play an essential role at a pivotal point in mammary gland function when lactation stops, milk-producing cells die and breast tissue needs to remodel back to its original state. The clearing action performed by th