Microenvironmental networks promote tumor heterogeneity and enrich for metastatic cancer stem-like cells in Luminal-A breast tumor cells.

ABSTRACT: The roles of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in generating intra-tumoral diversity within each specific breast cancer subtype are far from being fully elucidated. In this study, we exposed Luminal-A breast cancer cells in culture to combined "TME Stimulation", representing three typical arms of the breast TME: hormonal (estrogen), inflammatory (tumor necrosis factor α) and growth-promoting (epidermal growth factor). In addition to enriching the tumor cell population with CD44+/β1+ cells (as we previously published), TME Stimulation selected for CD44+/CD24low/- stem-like cells, that were further enriched by doxorubicin treatment and demonstrated high plasticity in vitro and in vivo. Knock-down experiments revealed that CD44 and Zeb1 regulated CD24 and β1 expression and controlled different

SUBMITTER: Weitzenfeld P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5348381 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature