Project description:Unraveling the yet unknown molecular mechanisms regulating the biology of metastasis-competent Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) is important for better understanding metastatic growth and disease relapses in patients with colon cancer. We investigated and compared the transcriptome profiles of the CTC line and of a cell line derived from a primary colon cancer to get some insight into the specific molecular mechanism of metastasis-competent CTCs. We used microarrays to establish the molecular portrait of the metastasis-competent CTC and of HT-29 cells
Project description:Clusters of circulating tumor cells (CTC-clusters) are present in the blood of patients with cancer but their contribution to metastasis is not well defined. Here, we first use mouse models to demonstrate that breast cancer cells injected intravascularly as clusters are more prone to survive and colonize the lungs than single cells. Primary mammary tumors comprised of tagged cells give rise to oligoclonal CTC-clusters, with 50-fold increased metastatic potential, compared with single CTCs. Using intravital imaging and in vivo flow cytometry, CTC-clusters are visualized in the tumor circulation, and they demonstrate rapid clearance in peripheral vessels. In patients with breast cancer, presence of CTC-clusters is correlated with decreased progression-free survival. RNA sequencing identifies the cell junction protein plakoglobin as most differentially expressed between clusters and single human breast CTCs. Expression of plakoglobin is required for efficient CTC-cluster formation and breast cancer metastasis in mice, while its expression is associated with diminished metastasis-free survival in breast cancer patients. Together, these observations suggest that plakoglobin-enriched primary tumor cells break off into the vasculature as CTC-clusters, with greatly enhanced metastasis propensity. RNA-seq from 29 samples (15 pools of single CTCs and 14 CTC-clusters) isolated from 10 breast cancer patients
Project description:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.