Characterization of Cell Lines Derived from Breast Cancers and Normal Mammary Tissues for the Study of the Intrinsic Molecular Subtypes

ABSTRACT: Five molecular subtypes (Luminal A/B, HER2-enriched, Basal-like, and Claudin-low) with clinical implications have been identified. In this report, we evaluated molecular and phenotypic relationships of a large in vitro panel of human breast cancer cell lines (BCCLs), human mammary fibroblasts (HMFs) and human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) with (1) breast tumors, (2) normal breast cell-enriched subpopulations and (3) human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). First, by integrating genomic data of 337 breast samples with 93 cell lines we were able to identify all the intrinsic tumor subtypes in vitro, except for the Luminal A. Secondly, we observed that cell lines recapitulate the differentiation hierarchy observed in the mammary gland, with Claudin-low BCCLs and HMFs cells showing a stromal phenotype, HMECs showing a mammary stem cell/bipotent progenitor phenotype, Basal-like cells showing a luminal progenitor phenotype, and Luminal B cells showing a luminal phenotype. Thirdly, we identified Basal-like and highly migratory Claudin-low subpopulations of cells within a subset of triple-negative BCCLs (SUM149PT, HCC1143 and HCC38). Interestingly, both subpopulations within SUM149PT where found to have Tumor Initiating Cell (TIC) features, but the Basal-like subpopulation grew faster than the Claudin-low subpopulation. Finally, Claudin-low BCCLs were found to resemble the phenotype of hMSCs, whereas hESCs cells were found to have an epithelial phenotype without basal and luminal differentiation. The results presented here should help improve our understanding of the cell line model system through the appropriate pairing of cell lines with relevant in vivo tumor and normal cell counterparts.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE50470 | GEO | 2013/10/29

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA217714

REPOSITORIES: GEO