Cancer stem cells from lobular infiltrating breast tumor metastasize to bone and acquire a gene signature associated to bone tropism
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ABSTRACT: We investigated the role of breast cancer stem-like cells (CSCs-like), isolated from primary tumor, in promoting bone metastases in a human-in-mice model. Luciferase-transduced CD44+CD24- breast CSCs-like were injected through subcutaneous (SC) and intracardiac (IC) route in nonobese/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice carrying subcutaneous human bone implants. The implanted bone was viable, active and human neo-vascularization was present. By in vivo luciferase imaging, we monitored tumor growth and detected bone-localized breast CSCs-like, both after SC and IC injection. Bone metastatic lesions were histologically evident, and tumor cells expressed epithelial markers and vimentin. Bone metastatic cells isolated from bone implants showed a CD44-CD24+ phenotype and re-created tumors and bone metastases after injection in secondary mice. A “bone tropism” expression signature was found to distinguish bone-colonizing cells from parental CSCs-like and to persist at subsequent passages also in the absence of surrounding bone tissue. The bone tropism signature displayed significant enrichment in genes discriminating bone metastases of breast cancer from metastases at other organs. Our results demonstrate the ability of breast CSCs-like to promote bone metastasis and provide a CSCs-like bone tropism signature, with potential prognostic value.
Project description:We investigated the role of breast cancer stem-like cells (CSCs-like), isolated from primary tumor, in promoting bone metastases in a human-in-mice model. Luciferase-transduced CD44+CD24- breast CSCs-like were injected through subcutaneous (SC) and intracardiac (IC) route in nonobese/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice carrying subcutaneous human bone implants. The implanted bone was viable, active and human neo-vascularization was present. By in vivo luciferase imaging, we monitored tumor growth and detected bone-localized breast CSCs-like, both after SC and IC injection. Bone metastatic lesions were histologically evident, and tumor cells expressed epithelial markers and vimentin. Bone metastatic cells isolated from bone implants showed a CD44-CD24+ phenotype and re-created tumors and bone metastases after injection in secondary mice. A “bone tropism” expression signature was found to distinguish bone-colonizing cells from parental CSCs-like and to persist at subsequent passages also in the absence of surrounding bone tissue. The bone tropism signature displayed significant enrichment in genes discriminating bone metastases of breast cancer from metastases at other organs. Our results demonstrate the ability of breast CSCs-like to promote bone metastasis and provide a CSCs-like bone tropism signature, with potential prognostic value. C10 breast cancer stem-like cells (CSCs-like) were derived as mammospheres from a lobular-infiltrating breast carcinoma (ER+, HER2-). Samples are organized in the following groups: (i) Breast CSCs-like (C10, duplicate); (ii) Luciferase-transduced CSCs-like (C10L, simplicate); (iii) Bone-isolated C10L metastatic cells (C10-bone, duplicate) and subsequently (iv) grown in vitro as spheroids (C10-CSC, simplicate) or (v) re-grown in subcutaneous implants (C10-SC, duplicate).
Project description:Pancreatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been described as CD24+/CD44+/EpCAM+ or CD133+ cells. However, no study has determined the co-expression of all of these markers in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Similarly to other combinations of CSC markers, CD24+/ CD44+/EpCAM+/CD133+ phenotype might more accurately identify true pancreatic CSCs. Therefore, we performed a detailed co-expression analysis of CD24, CD44, EpCAM, and CD133 in 3 cell lines derived from primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs). Gene expression profiling was applied in order to further investigate the observed differences in proportion of cells that co-expressed CSC markers among the cell lines.
Project description:Breast cancer is a curable disease if it is diagnosed at an early stage. However, only little options are left once the tumor is metastasized to distant organs, and more than 90% of breast cancer death is attributed to metastatic disease. The process of metastasis is highly complex and involves many steps for successful colonization of tumor cells at a target organ. According to the cancer stem cell (CSC) theory, which still remains a hypothesis, these metastatic cells must have stem cell-like capability for their self-renewal in addition to their invasive ability. Therefore, it has been predicted that a “metastatic stem cell”, which is distinct from a cancer stem cell, must exist in the primary tumor mass. To identify genes that are involved in metastasis of CSCs, we isolated CSC populations from a well-established model cell line of breast cancer, MDA-MB231, and that of highly metastatic variants, 231BoM-1833 and 231BrM-2a, using CD24, CD44 and EpCAM (ESA), which have been identified as surface markers for CSCs in breast cancers. Overall yield of CSCs from these cells ranged from 2% to 4%. We then performed global expression profile analysis for these CSCs using the Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0ST array. CSC populations (CD24-/CD44+/ESA+) from MDA-MB231, 231BoM-1833 and 231BrM-2a were isolated by magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) using specific antibodies to these surface markers. The total RNA was isolated from the CSC populations using the RNeasy RNA isolation kit (Qiagen). The RNA was then converted to cDNA and they were hybridized to the Human Gene 1.0ST chip (Affymetrix). The data was normalized using the RMA algorithm of the Expression Console software (Affymetrix). A comparison of transcriptional profiles was then performed in CSCs of highly metastatic cell lines (231BoM-1833 and 231BrM-2a) compared to the CSCs of MDA-MB-231.
Project description:Deregulation of Src kinases is associated with cancer. We previously showed that SrcDN conditional expression in MCF7 cells diminished tumorigenesis and causes tumor regression in mice. However, it remained unclear whether SrcDN affected breast cancer stem cell functionality or it reduced tumor mass. Here, we address this question by isolating an enriched population of BCSCs (ESA+-CD44+-CD24-) and the tumor-differentiated cells (ESA+-CD44+-CD24+) from MCF7-Tet-On-SrcDN. ESA+-CD44+-CD24- grew in suspension forming mammospheres, and producing tumors in nude mice, while ESA+-CD44+-CD24+ were poorly/non-tumorigenic. Doxycycline-induction of SrcDN inhibited BCSC tumorigenesis, selfrenewal, and stem-cell markers expression. SrcDN significantly inhibited SFE, and stem-cell markers expression in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) MDA-MB-231 and SUM159PT cells. Inducible depletion of c-Src caused similar effects in MDA-MB-231 cells. In MCF7-Tet-On-SrcDN derived mammospheres SrcDN-induction inhibited expression, and activity of hexokinase, pyruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase, resulting in diminished glucose consumption and lactate production, which restricted Warburg effect. Thus, c-Src functionality is important for breast cancer stem cell maintenance and renewal, tumorigenicity, and stem cell transcription factor expression, effects linked to glucose metabolism reduction.
Project description:CD44+/CD24- subpopulation of normal and cancerous breast epithelial cells are suggested to have stem cell properties. The goal of this study was to identify gene expression differences between CD44+/CD24- and CD44-/CD24+ subpopulation of cells from a same cell lines. We selected MCF-10A cells, which are immortalized derived from a fibrocystic breast disease. These cells are immortalized but not transformed and express basal cell markers. Cells were from a single sort but plated into four 100 mm plates. RNA was prepared from each plate separately for the analysis. Comparison of gene expression between 2 groups ( CD44+/CD24- and CD44-/CD24+) 4 replicates each.
Project description:Tumorigenic breast cancer cells characterized by CD44 expression and low or undetectable CD24 levels (CD44+/CD24-/low) may be resistant to chemotherapy and therefore responsible for cancer relapse. Paired breast cancer core biopsies before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy or lapatinib were obtained and as single cell suspensions stained using antibodies against CD24, CD44, and lineage markers, and then analyzed by flow cytometry. Mammosphere (MS) formation in culture was compared before and after treatment. Global gene expression differences between cancer cells bearing CD44+/CD24-/low cells and all other sorted cells, and between cancer MS and the primary bulk invasive cancers were analyzed. We report that CD44+/CD24-/low tumorigenic breast cancer cells were intrinsically chemoresistant ─ chemotherapy led to increased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, increased self-renewal capacity on MS assays, and enhanced tumorigeneicity in immunocompromised SCID/Beige mice. Conversely, in patients with HER2 overexpressing tumors, the EGFR/HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, lapatinib decreased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, with the majority of these patients after conventional therapy achieving pathologic complete response, a validated surrogate marker for long-term survival. Gene transcription pathways that underlie chemoresistant, MS-forming CD44+/CD24-/low cells involve genes belonging to stem cell self-renewal, Wnt signaling, and early development pathways. Keywords: two group comparison
Project description:Tumorigenic breast cancer cells characterized by CD44 expression and low or undetectable CD24 levels (CD44+/CD24-/low) may be resistant to chemotherapy and therefore responsible for cancer relapse. Paired breast cancer core biopsies before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy or lapatinib were obtained and as single cell suspensions stained using antibodies against CD24, CD44, and lineage markers, and then analyzed by flow cytometry. Mammosphere (MS) formation in culture was compared before and after treatment. Global gene expression differences between cancer cells bearing CD44+/CD24-/low cells and all other sorted cells, and between cancer MS and the primary bulk invasive cancers were analyzed. We report that CD44+/CD24-/low tumorigenic breast cancer cells were intrinsically chemoresistant ─ chemotherapy led to increased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, increased self-renewal capacity on MS assays, and enhanced tumorigeneicity in immunocompromised SCID/Beige mice. Conversely, in patients with HER2 overexpressing tumors, the EGFR/HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, lapatinib decreased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, with the majority of these patients after conventional therapy achieving pathologic complete response, a validated surrogate marker for long-term survival. Gene transcription pathways that underlie chemoresistant, MS-forming CD44+/CD24-/low cells involve genes belonging to stem cell self-renewal, Wnt signaling, and early development pathways. Keywords: two group comparison
Project description:Tumorigenic breast cancer cells characterized by CD44 expression and low or undetectable CD24 levels (CD44+/CD24-/low) may be resistant to chemotherapy and therefore responsible for cancer relapse. Paired breast cancer core biopsies before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy or lapatinib were obtained and as single cell suspensions stained using antibodies against CD24, CD44, and lineage markers, and then analyzed by flow cytometry. Mammosphere (MS) formation in culture was compared before and after treatment. Global gene expression differences between cancer cells bearing CD44+/CD24-/low cells and all other sorted cells, and between cancer MS and the primary bulk invasive cancers were analyzed. We report that CD44+/CD24-/low tumorigenic breast cancer cells were intrinsically chemoresistant â chemotherapy led to increased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, increased self-renewal capacity on MS assays, and enhanced tumorigeneicity in immunocompromised SCID/Beige mice. Conversely, in patients with HER2 overexpressing tumors, the EGFR/HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, lapatinib decreased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, with the majority of these patients after conventional therapy achieving pathologic complete response, a validated surrogate marker for long-term survival. Gene transcription pathways that underlie chemoresistant, MS-forming CD44+/CD24-/low cells involve genes belonging to stem cell self-renewal, Wnt signaling, and early development pathways. Experiment Overall Design: Human breast tumor samples were sorted using flow cytometry to select for cells that were CD44+ and CD24-. Gene expression profiles of these cells were compared with profiles of the other sorted cells (CD24+ and CD44-/CD24-). Experiment Overall Design: Core biopsies of primary breast tumors were taken and placed immediately in cold RPMI-1640 supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated newborn calf serum (HINCS, Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). Within an hour, the samples were minced and then digested in 10-15 mL of MEGM with 250-300 units/mL collagenase at 370C. The samples were filtered, washed, and then subjected to hypotonic shock to lyse red blood cells. About 106 single cells were re-suspended, incubated for 15 min at 40C with anti-CD44 (APC), anti-CD24 (FITC), and anti-lineage cocktail antibodies (PE-conjugated anti-CD2, CD3, CD10, CD16, CD18, CD31 and CD 140B) (Pharmingen, San Diego, CA) using the manufacturerâs suggested concentrations. The cells were then washed twice, re-suspended with the viability dye propidium iodide, and analyzed using Dako MoFlo flow cytometry. Side- and forward- scatter were used to eliminate debris and cell doublets, and the Lin- cells were further analyzed by CD44 and CD24 markers.
Project description:We isolated quiescent CSCs using chemoradiotherapy resistance assays on tumors of MMTV-PyMT transgenic (specific breast cancer model) mice. We found that quiescent CSCs specifically expressed SETD4 without exception, and beyond activation exhibited high capacity of tumor-initiation in vivo and tumorsphere formation in vitro. Quiescent CSCs expressed high levels of ALDH1 and CD44 and low levels of CD24, that corresponds with their use as breast CSCs markers. Quiescent CSCs were showed to be resistant and able to survive under chemoradiotherapy treatment in either in vivo or in vitro models. Similarly, SETD4 overexpression caused cells extracted from tumors to exhibit clear chemoradiotherapy resistance. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that the molecular processes associated with cellular quiescence included those of DNA damage response and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Together with our previous results, these findings showed that SETD4 marks quiescent CSCs and suggest that SETD4-marked quiescent CSCs could be used as key targets in clinical treatment for multiple cancers.
Project description:Tumorigenic breast cancer cells characterized by CD44 expression and low or undetectable CD24 levels (CD44+/CD24-/low) may be resistant to chemotherapy and therefore responsible for cancer relapse. Paired breast cancer core biopsies before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy or lapatinib were obtained and as single cell suspensions stained using antibodies against CD24, CD44, and lineage markers, and then analyzed by flow cytometry. Mammosphere (MS) formation in culture was compared before and after treatment. Global gene expression differences between cancer cells bearing CD44+/CD24-/low cells and all other sorted cells, and between cancer MS and the primary bulk invasive cancers were analyzed. We report that CD44+/CD24-/low tumorigenic breast cancer cells were intrinsically chemoresistant - chemotherapy led to increased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, increased self-renewal capacity on MS assays, and enhanced tumorigeneicity in immunocompromised SCID/Beige mice. Conversely, in patients with HER2 overexpressing tumors, the EGFR/HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, lapatinib decreased CD44+/CD24-/low cells, with the majority of these patients after conventional therapy achieving pathologic complete response, a validated surrogate marker for long-term survival. Gene transcription pathways that underlie chemoresistant, MS-forming CD44+/CD24-/low cells involve genes belonging to stem cell self-renewal, Wnt signaling, and early development pathways. Experiment Overall Design: Cells from human breast tumors were grown as mammospheres (MS). Experiment Overall Design: Isolated single cell suspensions from primary breast cancers were plated onto non-adherent (polyhema-coated) plastic, counted with a hematocytometer, and 20,000 cells were then seeded into a 6-well ultra-low attachment plate supplemented with 2mL MEGM, with the addition of 2 mL of freshly unfrozen MEGM every 3-4 days. Gene expression profiles were taken of both MS and primary bulk tumors and compared with each other.