Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women continuing to rise 
worldwide. Breast cancer emerges through a multi-step process, encompassing 
progressive changes from a normal cell to hyperplasia (with and without atypia), 
carcinoma in situ, invasive carcinoma, and metastasis. In the current study, we 
analyzed the morphological changes and alterations of DNA methylation, histone 
methylation and microRNA expression during estradiol-17beta (E(2))-induced 
mammary carcinogenesis in female August Copenhagen Irish (ACI) rats. 
E(2)-induced breast carcinogenesis in ACI rats provides a physiologically 
relevant and genetically defined animal model for studying human sporadic breast 
cancer. The pattern of morphological changes in mammary glands during 
E(2)-induced carcinogenesis was characterized by transition from normal 
appearing alveolar and ductular hyperplasia to focal hyperplastic areas of 
atypical glands and ducts accompanied by a rapid and sustained loss of global 
DNA methylation, LINE-1 hypomethylation, loss of histone H3 lysine 9 and histone 
H4 lysine 20 trimethylation, and altered microRNAs expression. More importantly, 
these alterations in the mammary tissue occurred after six weeks of 
E(2)-treatment, whereas the atypical hyperplasia, which represents a putative 
precursor lesion to mammary carcinoma in this model, was detected only after 
twelve weeks of exposure, demonstrating clearly that these events are directly 
associated with the effects of E(2) and are not a consequence of the preexisting 
preneoplastic lesions. The results of this study show that deregulation of 
cellular epigenetic processes plays a crucial role in the mechanism of 
E(2)-induced mammary carcinogenesis in ACI rats, especially in the tumor 
initiation process.