Association of human breast cancer CD44-/CD24- cells with delayed distant metastasis.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Qiao X
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8346282 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Metastasis is the predominant cause of death from cancer yet we have few biomarkers to predict patients at increased risk of metastasis and are unable to effectively treat disseminated disease. Analysis of 448 primary breast tumors determined that expression of the hylauronan receptor CD44 associated with high grade (p = 0.046), ER- (p = 0.001) and PR-negative tumors (p = 0.029), and correlated with increased distant recurrence and reduced disease-free survival in patients with lymph-node positive or large tumors. To determine its functional role in distant metastasis, CD44 was knocked-down in MDA-MB-231 cells using two independent shRNA sequences. Loss of CD44 attenuated tumor cell adhesion to endothelial cells and reduced cell invasion but did not affect proliferation in vitro. To verify the importance of CD44 to post-intravasation events, tumor formation was assessed by quantitative in vivo imaging and post-mortem tissue analysis following an intra-cardiac injection of transfected cells. CD44 knock-down increased survival and decreased overall tumor burden at multiple sites, including the skeleton in vivo. We conclude that elevated CD44 expression on tumour cells within the systemic circulation increases the efficiency of post-intravasation events and distant metastasis in vivo, consistent with its association with increased distant recurrence and reduced disease-free survival in patients.
| S-EPMC4484469 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cells with high CD44 but low CD24 expression (CD44high/CD24-/low) and high aldehyde dehydrogenase activity (ALDHbr) are widely considered to be drivers of metastasis, therapy resistance and tumor recurrence in breast cancer. However, the role of the CD44high/CD24-/low and ALDHbr phenotypes in identifying tumorigenic cells in breast cancer remains controversial due to the discrepancy in their distribution and tumorigenic potential in intrinsic breast cancer subtypes. In this study, we analyzed the cells expressing these markers in six different breast cancer cell lines representing major breast cancer subtypes (T47D, MCF-7, BT-474, AU-565, Hs578T and MDA-MB-231). CD44high/CD24-/low, ALDHbr and CD44-/low/CD24-/low cell populations were isolated by flow cytometry and analyzed for hallmark stem cell characteristics of differentiation, migration, invasiveness and metastasis using in vitro and in vivo techniques. Our results demonstrate that the CD44-/low/CD24-/low cell population, which is enriched in luminal cell lines (T47D, MCF-7 and BT-474), possesses metastatic and tumorigenic properties. We also show that, contrary to previous claims, the expression of the ALDH1 isoform ALDH1A1 does not affect the tumorigenic potential of cell lines with high ALDH activity (BT-474 and AU-565). Further transcriptomic and clinical studies are needed to determine the potential of these markers as early diagnostic tools and treatment targets.
| S-EPMC7281029 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSTAT3 activation is frequently detected in breast cancer and this pathway has emerged as an attractive molecular target for cancer treatment. Recent experimental evidence suggests ALDH-positive (ALDH(+)), or cell surface molecule CD44-positive (CD44(+)) but CD24-negative (CD24(-)) breast cancer cells have cancer stem cell properties. However, the role of STAT3 signaling in ALDH(+) and ALDH(+)/CD44(+)/CD24(-) subpopulations of breast cancer cells is unknown.Methods and resultsWe examined STAT3 activation in ALDH(+) and ALDH(+)/CD44(+)/CD24(-) subpopulations of breast cancer cells by sorting with flow cytometer. We observed ALDH-positive (ALDH(+)) cells expressed higher levels of phosphorylated STAT3 compared to ALDH-negative (ALDH(-)) cells. There was a significant correlation between the nuclear staining of phosphorylated STAT3 and the expression of ALDH1 in breast cancer tissues. These results suggest that STAT3 is activated in ALDH(+) subpopulations of breast cancer cells. STAT3 inhibitors Stattic and LLL12 inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation, reduced the ALDH(+) subpopulation, inhibited breast cancer stem-like cell viability, and retarded tumorisphere-forming capacity in vitro. Similar inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation, and breast cancer stem cell viability were observed using STAT3 ShRNA. In addition, LLL12 inhibited STAT3 downstream target gene expression and induced apoptosis in ALDH(+) subpopulations of breast cancer cells. Furthermore, LLL12 inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation and tumor cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and suppressed tumor growth in xenograft and mammary fat pad mouse models from ALDH(+) breast cancer cells. Similar in vitro and tumor growth in vivo results were obtained when ALDH(+) cells were further selected for the stem cell markers CD44(+) and CD24(-).ConclusionThese studies demonstrate an important role for STAT3 signaling in ALDH(+) and ALDH(+)/CD44(+)/CD24(-) subpopulations of breast cancer cells which may have cancer stem cell properties and suggest that pharmacologic inhibition of STAT3 represents an effective strategy to selectively target the cancer stem cell-like subpopulation.
| S-EPMC3871589 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionWhether cancer stem cells occur in BRCA1-associated breast cancer and contribute to therapeutic response is not known.MethodsWe generated and characterized 16 cell lines from five distinct Brca1deficient mouse mammary tumors with respect to their cancer stem cell characteristics.ResultsAll cell lines derived from one tumor included increased numbers of CD44+/CD24- cells, which were previously identified as human breast cancer stem cells. All cell lines derived from another mammary tumor exhibited low levels of CD44+/CD24- cells, but they harbored 2% to 5.9% CD133+ cells, which were previously associated with cancer stem cells in other human and murine tumors. When plated in the absence of attachment without presorting, only those cell lines that were enriched in either stem cell marker formed spheroids, which were further enriched in cells expressing the respective cancer stem cell marker. In contrast, cells sorted for CD44+/CD24- or CD133+ markers lost their stem cell phenotype when cultured in monolayers. As few as 50 to 100 CD44+/CD24- or CD133+ sorted cells rapidly formed tumors in nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient mice, whereas 50-fold to 100-fold higher numbers of parental or stem cell depleted cells were required to form few, slow-growing tumors. Expression of stem cell associated genes, including Oct4, Notch1, Aldh1, Fgfr1, and Sox1, was increased in CD44+/CD24- and CD133+ cells. In addition, cells sorted for cancer stem cell markers and spheroid-forming cells were significantly more resistant to DNA-damaging drugs than were parental or stem cell depleted populations, and they were sensitized to the drugs by the heat shock protein-90 inhibitor 17-DMAG (17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin hydrochloride).ConclusionBrca1-deficient mouse mammary tumors harbor heterogeneous cancer stem cell populations, and CD44+/CD24- cells represent a population that correlates with human breast cancer stem cells.
| S-EPMC2374965 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The CD44(hi) compartment in human breast cancer is enriched in tumor-initiating cells; however, the functional heterogeneity within this subpopulation remains poorly defined. We used a triple-negative breast cancer cell line with a known bilineage phenotype to isolate and clone CD44(hi) single cells that exhibited mesenchymal/basal B and luminal/basal A features, respectively. Herein, we demonstrate in this and other triple-negative breast cancer cell lines that, rather than CD44(hi)/CD24(-) mesenchymal-like basal B cells, the CD44(hi)/CD24(lo) epithelioid basal A cells retained classic cancer stem cell features, such as tumor-initiating capacity in vivo, mammosphere formation and resistance to standard chemotherapy. These results complement previous findings using oncogene-transformed normal mammary cells showing that only cell clones with a mesenchymal phenotype exhibit cancer stem cell features. Further, we performed comparative quantitative proteomic and gene array analyses of these cells and identified potential novel markers of breast cancer cells with tumor-initiating features, such as lipolysis-stimulated lipoprotein receptor (LSR), RAB25, S100A14 and mucin 1 (MUC1), as well as a novel 31-gene signature capable of predicting distant metastasis in cohorts of estrogen receptor-negative human breast cancers. These findings strongly favor functional heterogeneity in the breast cancer cell compartment and hold promise for further refinements of prognostic marker profiling. Our work confirms that, in addition to cancer stem cells with mesenchymal-like morphology, those tumor-initiating cells with epithelial-like morphology should also be the focus of drug development.
| S-EPMC3474436 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Breast cancers contain a minority population of cancer cells characterized by CD44 expression but low or undetectable levels of CD24 (CD44+CD24-/low) that have higher tumorigenic capacity than other subtypes of cancer cells. METHODS: We compared the gene-expression profile of CD44+CD24-/low tumorigenic breast-cancer cells with that of normal breast epithelium. Differentially expressed genes were used to generate a 186-gene invasiveness gene signature (IGS), which was evaluated for its association with overall survival and metastasis-free survival in patients with breast cancer or other types of cancer. RESULTS: There was a significant association between the IGS and both overall and metastasis-free survival (P<0.001, for both) in patients with breast cancer, which was independent of established clinical and pathological variables. When combined with the prognostic criteria of the National Institutes of Health, the IGS was used to stratify patients with high-risk early breast cancer into prognostic categories (good or poor); among patients with a good prognosis, the 10-year rate of metastasis-free survival was 81%, and among those with a poor prognosis, it was 57%. The IGS was also associated with the prognosis in medulloblastoma (P=0.004), lung cancer (P=0.03), and prostate cancer (P=0.01). The prognostic power of the IGS was increased when combined with the wound-response (WR) signature. CONCLUSIONS: The IGS is strongly associated with metastasis-free survival and overall survival for four different types of tumors. This genetic signature of tumorigenic breast-cancer cells was even more strongly associated with clinical outcomes when combined with the WR signature in breast cancer. Expression profling was performed on 6 tumorigenic, 3 non tumorigenic samples of breast tumors and 3 normal breast samples on two different platforms GPL96 and GPL97. A gene signature was derived by comparing the gene expressions of 6 tumorigenic samples with 3 normal breast samples.
| S-ECPF-GEOD-6883 | biostudies-other
Project description:The combination of CD44 and CD24, or aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) alone, is a widely used cancer stem cell marker in breast cancer. However, no conclusion has yet been reached as to which marker is the best for characterizing cancer stemness. Immunohistochemical evaluation using cancer stem cell markers is clearly less common clinically than in basic experiments and how the expressions of these markers relate to patient outcomes remains controversial. To investigate whether combining these markers might improve the prediction of patient outcomes, we immunohistochemically examined clinical samples. Primary invasive breast cancer samples from 61 patients who eventually developed distant metastases after curative surgery were immunohistochemically examined. All patients were free of metastatic disease at the time of surgery and received standard adjuvant systemic treatments. CD44+/24- and ALDH1-positive rates in primary tumors differed according to intrinsic subtype. ER-positive patients with CD44+/24- tumors had significantly longer disease-free-survival than all other ER-positive patients (p = 0.0047). On the other hand, CD44+/24- tumors were associated with poor outcomes of ER-negative patients (p = 0.038). Finally, expression patterns of CD44 and ALDH1 in single tumors were strikingly different and there were virtually no individual double-stained cells. Thus, this combination does not allow evaluation of relationships with patient outcomes. Our results raise the possibility of CD44+/24- being a good prognostic marker, one which would allow treatment effects and outcomes to be predicted in patients with recurrent breast cancer.
| S-EPMC5074575 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundBreast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) have been recently identified in breast carcinoma as CD44+CD24- cells, which exclusively retain tumorigenic activity and display stem cell-like properties. Using a mammosphere culture technique, MCF7 mammosphere cells are found to enrich breast cancer stem-like cells expressing CD44+CD24-. The stromal cells are mainly constituted by fibroblasts within a breast carcinoma, yet little is known of the contributions of the stromal cells to BCSCs.MethodsCarcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and normal fibroblasts (NFs) were isolated and identified by immunohistochemistry. MCF7 mammosphere cells were co-cultured with different stromal fibroblasts by a transwell cocultured system. Flow cytometry was used to measure CD44 and CD24 expression status on MCF7. ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) was performed to investigate the production of stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) in mammosphere cultures subject to various treatments. Mammosphere cells were injected with CAFs and NFs to examine the efficiency of tumorigenity in NOD/SCID mice.ResultsCAFs derived from breast cancer patients were found to be positive for alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA), exhibiting the traits of myofibroblasts. In addition, CAFs played a central role in promoting the proliferation of CD44+CD24- cells through their ability to secrete SDF-1, which may be mediated to SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling. Moreover, the tumorigenicity of mammosphere cells with CAFs significantly increased as compared to that of mammosphere cells alone or with NFs.ConclusionWe for the first time investigated the effects of stromal fibroblasts on CD44+CD24- cells and our findings indicated that breast CAFs contribute to CD44+CD24- cell proliferation through the secretion of SDF-1, and which may be important target for therapeutic approaches.
| S-EPMC2911413 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionBreast cancer stem cell with CD44(hi)/CD24(lo) phonotype is described having stem cell properties and represented as the main driving factor in breast cancer initiation, growth, metastasis and low response to anti-cancer agents. Glucoseregulated proteins (GRPs) are heat shock protein family chaperons that are charged with regulation of protein machinery and modulation of endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis whose important roles in stem cell development and invasion of various cancers have been demonstrated. Here, we investigated the expression levels of GRP78 and GRP94 in CD44(hi)/CD24(lo) phenotype breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs).MethodsMCF7, T-47D and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines were used. CD44(hi)/CD24(lo) phenotype cell population were analyzed and sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Transcriptional and translational expression of GRP78 and GRP94 were investigated by western blotting and quantitative real time PCR.ResultsRESULTS showed different proportion of CD44(hi)/CD24(lo) phenotype cell population in their original bulk cells. The ranking of the cell lines in terms of CD44(hi)/CD24(lo) phenotype cell population was as MCF7<T-47D<MDA-MB-231. Our results also indicated that CD44(hi)/CD24(lo) phenotype cells exhibited higher mRNA and protein expression level of GRP78 and GRP94 compared to their original bulk cells.ConclusionOur results show a relationship between overexpression of GRP78 and GRP94 and exhibiting CD44hi/CD24lo phenotype in breast cancer cells. We conclude that upregulation of GRPs may be an important factor in the emergence of CD44hi/CD24lo phenotype BCSCs features.
| S-EPMC4981248 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Circulating microRNAs have recently emerged as a new class of promising non-invasive cancer biomarkers. The purpose of this study was the identification by a high-throughput approach (miRNA microarray) of circulating miRNAs associated with breast cancer-derived distant metastasis. To achieve this goal, we resorted to archival plasma samples collected from patients in the control arm of a randomized clinical trial on stage I breast cancer. We compared plasma miRNA levels in patients that developed distant metastasis after a radical or conservative surgery and in those long-term disease-free. Microarray results were technically and independently validated by Real Time PCR. Subsequent in vitro, in vivo and in silico analyses were performed to investigate the miRNA biological/clinical significance in relation with breast cancer progression. We demonstrated that high circulating miR-1246 levels were associated to distant metastasis and that high tissue expression of this miRNA was correlated with unfavorable outcome in ER+HER2- breast cancer patients. In addition, miR-1246 expression was also found to be related with stem-like features. 64 samples (32 patients with metastasis and 32 patients with no metastasis) were considered from a total of 208 hybridized samples collected between 1987 and 2004 (including 94 paired samples according to tumor ER status, age at drawing, drawing year, time from surgery, 7 additional samples from 'no evidence of disease' (NED) patients, 10 references, 1 healthy donor and 2 replicated samples)
2015-08-31 | E-GEOD-68373 | biostudies-arrayexpress