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Molecular distinctions between stasis and telomere attrition senescence barriers shown by long-term culture of normal human mammary epithelial cells.

ABSTRACT: Normal human epithelial cells in culture have generally shown a limited proliferative potential of approximately 10 to 40 population doublings before encountering a stress-associated senescence barrier (stasis) associated with elevated levels of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p16 and/or p21. We now show that simple changes in medium composition can expand the proliferative potential of human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) initiated as primary cultures to 50 to 60 population doublings followed by p16-positive, senescence-associated beta-galactosidase-positive stasis. We compared the properties of growing and senescent pre-stasis HMEC with growing and senescent post-selection HMEC, that is, cells grown in a serum-free medium that overcame stasis via silencing of p16 expression and that display senescence associated with telomere dysfunction. Cultured pre-stasis populations contained cells expressing markers associated with luminal and myoepithelial HMEC lineages in vivo in contrast to the basal-like phenotype of the post-selection HMEC. Gene transcript and protein expression, DNA damage-associated markers, mean telomere restriction fragment length, and genomic stability differed significantly between HMEC populations at the stasis versus telomere dysfunction senescence barriers. Senescent isogenic fibroblasts showed greater similarity to HMEC at stasis than at telomere dysfunction, although their gene transcript profile was distinct from HMEC at both senescence barriers. These studies support our model of the senescence barriers encountered by cultured HMEC in which the first barrier, stasis, is retinoblastoma-mediated and independent of telomere length, whereas a second barrier (agonescence or crisis) results from telomere attrition leading to telomere dysfunction. Additionally, the ability to maintain long-term growth of genomically stable multilineage pre-stasis HMEC populations can greatly enhance experimentation with normal HMEC.

SUBMITTER: Garbe JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2782785 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular distinctions between stasis and telomere attrition senescence barriers shown by long-term culture of normal human mammary epithelial cells.

Garbe James C JC Bhattacharya Sanchita S Merchant Batul B Bassett Ekaterina E Swisshelm Karen K Feiler Heidi S HS Wyrobek Andrew J AJ Stampfer Martha R MR

Cancer research 20090922 19

Normal human epithelial cells in culture have generally shown a limited proliferative potential of approximately 10 to 40 population doublings before encountering a stress-associated senescence barrier (stasis) associated with elevated levels of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p16 and/or p21. We now show that simple changes in medium composition can expand the proliferative potential of human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) initiated as primary cultures to 50 to 60 population doublings follow ...[more]

PMID: 19773443

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Project description:Molecular distinctions between the stasis and telomere attrition senescence barriers in cultured human mammary epithelial cells Normal human epithelial cells in culture have generally shown a limited proliferative potential of ~10-40 population doublings before encountering a stress-associated senescence barrier (stasis) associated with elevated levels of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p16 and/or p21. We now show that simple changes in media composition can expand the proliferative potential of human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) initiated as primary cultures to 50-60 population doublings, followed by p16(+), senescence-associated b-galactosidase(+) stasis. We compared the properties of growing and senescent pre-stasis HMEC with growing and senescent post-selection HMEC, i.e., cells grown in a serum-free medium that overcame stasis via silencing of p16 expression and that display senescence associated with telomere dysfunction. Cultured pre-stasis populations contained cells expressing markers associated with luminal and myoepithelial HMEC lineages in vivo, in contrast to the basal-like phenotype of the post-selection HMEC. Gene transcript and protein expression, DNA damage-associated markers, mean TRF length, and genomic stability, differed significantly between HMEC populations at the stasis vs. telomere attrition senescence barriers. Senescent isogenic fibroblasts showed greater similarity to HMEC at stasis than at telomere attrition, although their gene transcript profile was distinct from HMEC at both senescence barriers. These studies support our model of the senescence barriers encountered by cultured HMEC in which the first barrier, stasis, is Rb-mediated and independent of telomere length, while a second barrier (agonescence or crisis) results from telomere attrition leading to telomere dysfunction. Additionally, the ability to maintain long-term growth of genomically stable multi-lineage pre-stasis HMEC populations can greatly enhance experimentation with normal HMEC. 48 samples from Human Mammary Epithelial cells which includes samples from four different individuals at different passage levels which includes prestasis,intermediate,post selection and agonesence stages of cell cycle.

Project description:BackgroundHuman mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) overcome two well-characterized genetic and epigenetic barriers as they progress from primary cells to fully immortalized cell lines in vitro. Finite lifespan HMEC overcome an Rb-mediated stress-associated senescence barrier (stasis), and a stringent, telomere-length dependent, barrier (agonescence or crisis, depending on p53 status). HMEC that have overcome the second senescence barrier are immortalized.MethodsWe have characterized pre-stasis, post-selection (post-stasis, with p16 silenced), and fully immortalized HMEC by transcription profiling and RT-PCR. Four pre-stasis and seven post-selection HMEC samples, along with 10 representatives of fully immortalized breast epithelial cell lines, were profiled using Affymetrix U133A/B chips and compared using both supervised and unsupervised clustering. Datasets were validated by RT-PCR for a select set of genes. Quantitative immunofluorescence was used to assess changes in transcriptional regulators associated with the gene expression changes.ResultsThe most dramatic and uniform changes we observed were in a set of about 30 genes that are characterized as a "cancer proliferation cluster," which includes genes expressed during mitosis (CDC2, CDC25, MCM2, PLK1) and following DNA damage. The increased expression of these genes was particularly concordant in the fully immortalized lines. Additional changes were observed in IFN-regulated genes in some post-selection and fully immortalized cultures. Nuclear localization was observed for several transcriptional regulators associated with expression of these genes in post-selection and immortalized HMEC, including Rb, Myc, BRCA1, HDAC3 and SP1.ConclusionGene expression profiles and cytological changes in related transcriptional regulators indicate that immortalized HMEC resemble non-invasive breast cancers, such as ductal and lobular carcinomas in situ, and are strikingly distinct from finite-lifespan HMEC, particularly with regard to genes involved in proliferation, cell cycle regulation, chromosome structure and the DNA damage response. The comparison of HMEC profiles with lines harboring oncogenic changes (e.g. overexpression of Her-2neu, loss of p53 expression) identifies genes involved in tissue remodeling as well as proinflamatory cytokines and S100 proteins. Studies on carcinogenesis using immortalized cell lines as starting points or "normal" controls need to account for the significant pre-existing genetic and epigenetic changes inherent in such lines before results can be broadly interpreted.

Project description:The ability to culture normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) greatly facilitates experiments that seek to understand both normal mammary cell biology and the many differences between normal and abnormal human mammary epithelia. To maximize in vivo relevance, the primary cell culture conditions should maintain cells in states that resemble in vivo as much as possible. Towards this goal, we compared the properties of HMEC strains from two different reduction mammoplasty tissues that were grown in parallel using different media and culture conditions. Epithelial organoids were initiated into three different media: two commonly used serum-free-media, MCDB 170-type (e.g. MEGM) and WIT-P, and a low stress media, M87A. Growth, lineage heterogeneity, p16 protein expression, and population doublings to senescence were measured for each culture condition. MCDB 170 caused rapid senescence and loss of heterogeneity within 2 to 3 passages, but some cultures went through the 1 to 2 month process of selection to generate clonal finite post-selection post-stasis cells. WIT-P caused impressive expansion of luminal cells in 2nd passage followed by their near complete disappearance by passage 4 and senescence shortly thereafter. M87A supported as much as twice the number of population doublings compared to either serum-free medium, and luminal and myoepithelial cells were present for as many as 8 passages. Thus, of the three media compared, WIT-P and MCDB 170 imposed rapid senescence and loss of lineage heterogeneity, phenotypes consistent with cells maintained in high-stress conditions, while M87A supported cultures that maintained multiple lineages and robust growth for up to 60 population doublings. In conjunction with previous studies examining the molecular properties of cultures grown in these media, we conclude that M87A medium is most able to support long-term culture of multiple lineages similar to in vivo conditions, thereby facilitating investigations of normal HMEC biology relevant to the mammary gland in situ.

Dataset Information

Molecular distinctions between stasis and telomere attrition senescence barriers shown by long-term culture of normal human mammary epithelial cells.

Publications

Molecular distinctions between stasis and telomere attrition senescence barriers shown by long-term culture of normal human mammary epithelial cells.

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