Detyrosinated microtubule protrusions in suspended mammary epithelial cells promote reattachment.

ABSTRACT: Breast tumor cells enter the bloodstream long before the development of clinically evident metastasis. However, the early presence of such bloodborne cells predicts poor patient outcome. Nearly 90% of human breast tumors arise as carcinomas from mammary epithelial cells, so it is important to study how these cells respond to the detached conditions that they would experience in the bloodstream. We report here that mammary epithelial cell lines produce long and dynamic protrusions of the plasma membrane when detached. Although human and mouse mammary epithelial cell lines die by apoptosis within 16 h of detachment, this protrusive response persists for days in cells overexpressing either Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL. Unlike actin-dependent invadopodia and podosomes, these protrusions are actually enhanc

SUBMITTER: Whipple RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3132414 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature