Mitochondrial calcium uniporter activity is dispensable for MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cell survival.

ABSTRACT: Calcium uptake through the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU) is thought to be essential in regulating cellular signaling events, energy status, and survival. Functional dissection of the uniporter is now possible through the recent identification of the genes encoding for MCU protein complex subunits. Cancer cells exhibit many aspects of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with altered mitochondrial Ca2+ levels including resistance to apoptosis, increased reactive oxygen species production and decreased oxidative metabolism. We used a publically available database to determine that breast cancer patient outcomes negatively correlated with increased MCU Ca2+ conducting pore subunit expression and decreased MICU1 regulatory subunit expression. We hypothesized breast cancer cells may theref

SUBMITTER: Hall DD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4011874 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature