Lipid Droplets Define a Sub-Population of Breast Cancer Stem Cells.

ABSTRACT: Tumor recurrence is now the leading cause of breast cancer-related death. These recurrences are believed to arise from residual cancer stem cells that survive initial therapeutic intervention. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of cancer stem cell biology is needed to generate more effective therapies. Here we investigate the association between dysregulation of lipid metabolism and breast cancer stem cells. Focusing specifically on lipid droplets, we found that the lipid droplet number correlates with stemness in a panel of breast cell lines. Using a flow cytometry-based method developed for this study, we establish a means to isolate cells with augmented lipid droplet loads from total populations and show that they are enriched in cancer stem cells. Furthermore, pharmacological tar

SUBMITTER: Hershey BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7019257 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature