Breast Development and Estrogen cycles 1.2

My second animation clip, these are images that I have worked on for a while. I find the "picket fence graph" very powerful. I had never imagined that there could be such a dramatic difference in the number of menstrual cycles between a never pregnant menopausal woman and women of her grandmothers era, when women had multiple births and long periods of lactation

The Biology of the Breast and Breast Cancer

After the storyboard comes the first draft, and this blog will feature the first draft animations for "Biology of the Breast and Breast Cancer", as I produce them. I am aiming to combine about 6 to 8 draft animation clips to produce a short animated video of the first segment of this project by the summer of 2010. It will feature the background information on breast biology predominantly on the gross, tissue level. Later segments will feature animations of the microscopic levels, the cell and molecular biology of the breast.

The ongoing unfolding of biomedical research has held my fascination for a long time and I want to convey the excitement and the many surprises in store when following the latest research findings. But first some background information is needed, and we must build a common language, in this case a moving, audio-visual-spatial language. By putting the varied information we know about the breast into one container - one simulation model - we can see how different streams of information fit together. This will enable us to formulate some questions to investigate and develop some threads to follow.

What is inside of the breast? These are simulations created to demonstrate what we know of the structural components (anatomy), how they might work (physiology) and what might go wrong (pathology) inside the breast.

This is a very personal take on this material using an artistic, painterly, digital procedural mapping touch to the visuals. The subject of my work, the internal structures of the breast cannot be viewed in situ; we rely on labled and stained tissue sections or radiographic images, representations that convey limited information, whereas comprehensive simulations of that information can convey much more in a more meaningful way, to many more people. Calling for creativity in synthesis and expression but not in content. In particular, the content often contains a large component of the "not yet fully understood or visualized" that digital media has a varied set of tools to convey. This is my medium: 3D models, digital materials, lighting, special effects and 3D animation. Almost too many possibilities, but their selective use can convey much more information than words and pictures alone. It can also engage a broader audience and demonstrate technical and often "fuzzy concepts" in seconds, and in such a way that one would want to continue to interact with the material in different ways; from video, to interactive Flash pieces, comics, medical illustrations, games, quizzes, audience feedback and contributions.

Everyone comes with breast glands, but this work will pertain to women more than men. The final video/product may be balanced out with a contrast and comparison between breast glands and the prostrate gland, they are both secretory glands ruled by sex hormones.

Keeping Abreast: Introduction clip 1.1

The Biology of the Breast and Breast Cancer

clip 1.1 of animated video

Partial storyboard of animation 1.1

This diagram of the quadrant incidence of breast cancer, maps out a stunning statistic about the distribution of the disease. The upper outer quadrant (UOQ) contains as much as 50% of all tumors; an amount that is apparently on the increase.
A generally accepted explanation for this disproportionate distribution of tumors is that the UOQ contains up to 50% of the glandular tissues or parenchyma. this is unlikely to be the only explanation. The division lines on this diagram look very much like cross hairs in a scope: an appropriate image for setting our sights on investigating and formulating questions on the biology of the breast and breast cancer

The upper outer quadrant may have more parenchyma in certain body positions but as much as 50%? Lets investigate.
This is a simulation of a twenty-five-year-old female's "owner's eye view" of her breast tissue from a standing up and looking down position,
as for a standard mammogram view of a horizontally-compressed breast.
Mammograms however can only distinguish dense tissues such as the parenchyma and supporting stromal-matrix from the less opaque fatty tissues and a twenty-five-year-old's breast is usually too dense to detect tumors by a mammogram.
A mediolateral-oblique (MLO) mammogram is taken of a diagonally compressed breast and gives a better view of the outer auxiliary tail of the breast.
This is the area farthest from the nipple but usually contains less than 1% of tumors.
Lying on one's back, much of the parenchyma does slump towards the outer quadrants.
But so does the nipple: the reference point for segmentating the quadrants.
When lying on one's stomach for an MRI the breast hangs udder-like and the 3D composition of the parenchyma suspended by connective tissue of the matrix can be visualized more clearly.
Sometimes the parenchyma can be seen to extend further into the UOQ.
This is the inside of the breast from an "owner's eye" view.
There are substantial differences in the quantity and distribution of mammary components at different ages and between individuals.
Variations in the amount of fat and parenchyma make up some of the large differences in breast size
There is a fat pad covering and sectors of fat between the parenchyma.


The parenchyma consists of an array of 12 or so discrete lobes,
each consisting of lobules connected to the nipple by a series of ducts.
In the lactating Breast, milk is produced in the lobule structures
and drains towards the nipple through the series of ducts.
So the parenchyma is made up of an array of lobes consisting of branched ducts and lobules which are surrounded and suspended by a matrix of connective tissue that fastens them to the chest and points along the skin.
This gives the parenchyma a lot of latitude for movement, tethered to the chest wall by matrix, the branched ductal system is free to move at the nipple end.
This freedom of movement increases with age and decreasing breast density, and may have biological significance

NEXT 2 - Breast development, lobes and ducts

3- The terminal ductal units (TDLU)