Vascular Endothelial-Breast Epithelial Cell Coculture Model Created from 3D Cell Structures.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Swaminathan S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8670894 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an established therapeutic modality that uses nonionizing near-infrared light to activate photocytotoxicity of endogenous or exogenous photosensitizers (PSs). An ongoing avenue of cancer research involves leveraging PDT to stimulate antitumor immune responses; however, these effects appear to be best elicited in low-dose regimens that do not provide significant tumor reduction using conventional, nonspecific PSs. The loss of immune enhancement at higher PDT doses may arise in part from indiscriminate damage to local immune cell populations, including tumor-infiltrating T cells. We previously introduced "tumor-targeted, activatable photoimmunotherapy" (taPIT) using molecular-targeted and cell-activatable antibody-PS conjugates to realize precision tumor photodamage with microscale fidelity. Here, we investigate the immune cell sparing effect provided by taPIT in a 3D model of the tumor immune microenvironment. We report that high-dose taPIT spares 25% of the local immune cell population, five times more than the conventional PDT regimen, in a 3D coculture model incorporating epithelial ovarian cancer cells and T cells. These findings suggest that the enhanced selectivity of taPIT may be utilized to achieve local tumor reduction with sparing of intratumor effector immune cells that would otherwise be lost if treated with conventional PDT.
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Project description:Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be differentiated into vascular endothelial (iEC) and smooth muscle (iSMC) cells. However, because iECs and iSMCs are not derived from an intact blood vessel, they represent an immature phenotype. Hemodynamics and heterotypic cell:cell communication play important roles in vascular cell phenotypic modulation. Here we tested the hypothesis that hemodynamic exposure of iECs in coculture with iSMCs induces an in vivo-like phenotype. iECs and iSMCs were cocultured under vascular region-specific blood flow hemodynamics, and compared to hemodynamic cocultures of blood vessel-derived endothelial (pEC) and smooth muscle (pSMC) cells. Hemodynamic flow-induced gene expression positively correlated between pECs and iECs as well as pSMCs and iSMCs. While endothelial nitric oxide synthase 3 protein was lower in iECs than pECs, iECs were functionally mature as seen by acetylated-low-density lipoprotein (LDL) uptake. SMC contractile protein markers were also positively correlated between pSMCs and iSMCs. Exposure of iECs and pECs to atheroprone hemodynamics with oxidized-LDL induced an inflammatory response in both. Dysfunction of the transforming growth factor ? (TGF?) pathway is seen in several vascular diseases, and iECs and iSMCs exhibited a transcriptomic prolife similar to pECs and pSMCs, respectively, in their responses to LY2109761-mediated transforming growth factor ? receptor I/II (TGF?RI/II) inhibition. Although there are differences between ECs and SMCs derived from iPSCs versus blood vessels, hemodynamic coculture restores a high degree of similarity in their responses to pathological stimuli associated with vascular diseases. Thus, iPSC-derived vascular cells exposed to hemodynamics may provide a viable system for modeling rare vascular diseases and testing new therapeutic approaches. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1673-1683.
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Project description:INTRODUCTION: About 70% of breast cancers express oestrogen receptor alpha (ESR1/ERalpha) and are oestrogen-dependent for growth. In contrast with the highly proliferative nature of ERalpha-positive tumour cells, ERalpha-positive cells in normal breast tissue rarely proliferate. Because ERalpha expression is rapidly lost when normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) are grown in vitro, breast cancer models derived from HMECs are ERalpha-negative. Currently only tumour cell lines are available to model ERalpha-positive disease. To create an ERalpha-positive breast cancer model, we have forced normal HMECs derived from reduction mammoplasty tissue to express ERalpha in combination with other relevant breast cancer genes. METHODS: Candidate genes were selected based on breast cancer microarray data and cloned into lentiviral vectors. Primary HMECs prepared from reduction mammoplasty tissue were infected with lentiviral particles. Infected HMECs were characterised by Western blotting, immunofluorescence microscopy, microarray analysis, growth curves, karyotyping and SNP chip analysis. The tumorigenicity of the modified HMECs was tested after orthotopic injection into the inguinal mammary glands of NOD/SCID mice. Cells were marked with a fluorescent protein to allow visualisation in the fat pad. The growth of the graft was analysed by fluorescence microscopy of the mammary glands and pathological analysis of stained tissue sections. Oestrogen dependence of tumour growth was assessed by treatment with the oestrogen antagonist fulvestrant. RESULTS: Microarray analysis of ERalpha-positive tumours reveals that they commonly overexpress the Polycomb-group gene BMI1. Lentiviral transduction with ERalpha, BMI1, TERT and MYC allows primary HMECs to be expanded in vitro in an oestrogen-dependent manner. Orthotopic xenografting of these cells into the mammary glands of NOD/SCID mice results in the formation of ERalpha-positive tumours that metastasise to multiple organs. The cells remain wild type for TP53, diploid and genetically stable. In vivo tumour growth and in vitro proliferation of cells explanted from tumours are dependent on oestrogen. CONCLUSION: We have created a genetically defined model of ERalpha-positive human breast cancer based on normal HMECs that has the potential to model human oestrogen-dependent breast cancer in a mouse and enables the study of mechanisms involved in tumorigenesis and metastasis.
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Project description:This study was performed to check that ESR1 and BMI1 are biologically active after lentiviral transduction of primary human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) with lentiviral vectors expressing ESR1 and BMI1 from the human PGK promoter. ESR1 targets like PGR, PRLR and GREB1, but not TFF1 and XBP1, were induced by estradiol in the ESR1-expressing cells. BMI1 targets like BMI1, NEFL and CCND2 were repressed in the BMI1-expressing cells. BMI1 suppressed genes associated with squamous and neural differentiation in the ESR1 plus BMI1-expressing cells. Experiment Overall Design: Infect with lentiviruses 24 hours after reduction mammmoplasty. Grow cells in human mammosphere medium: Hepes-buffered DMEM/F12 supplemented with 20 ng/ml EGF, 1x B-27 (GIBCO) plus 1 nM 17-β-estradiol or 1 uM fulvestrant (ICI 182,780). Experiment Overall Design: Lentiviral vectors: pSD-82, ESR1; pSD-84, BMI1; pSD-86, gusA.
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Project description:This study was performed to check that ESR1 and BMI1 are biologically active after lentiviral transduction of primary human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) with lentiviral vectors expressing ESR1 and BMI1 from the human PGK promoter. ESR1 targets like PGR, PRLR and GREB1, but not TFF1 and XBP1, were induced by estradiol in the ESR1-expressing cells. BMI1 targets like BMI1, NEFL and CCND2 were repressed in the BMI1-expressing cells. BMI1 suppressed genes associated with squamous and neural differentiation in the ESR1 plus BMI1-expressing cells. Keywords: Drug response
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