Cytokeratins 5 and 17 Maintain an Aggressive Epithelial State in Basal-Like Breast Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Basal-like breast cancers (BLBC) are the most common triple-negative subtype (hormone receptor and HER2 negative) with poor short-term disease outcome and are commonly identified by expression of basal cytokeratins (CK) 5 and 17. The goal of this study was to investigate whether CK5 and CK17 play a role in adverse behavior of BLBC cells. BLBC cell lines contain heterogeneous populations of cells expressing CK5, CK17, and the mesenchymal filament protein vimentin. Stable shRNA knockdown of either CK5 or CK17 compared with non-targeting control in BLBC cells was sufficient to promote an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) gene signature with loss of E-cadherin and an increase in vimentin expression. Relative to control cells, CK5 and CK17 knockdown cells acquired a more spindle-like morp

SUBMITTER: McGinn O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9444965 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature