Work

Human Breast Cancer Cell Lines Co-Express Neuronal, Epithelial, and Melanocytic Differentiation Markers In Vitro and In Vivo

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: Differentiation programs are aberrant in cancer cells allowing them to express differentiation markers in addition to their tissue of origin. In the present study, we demonstrate the multi-lineage differentiation potential of breast cancer cell lines to express multiple neuronal/glial lineage-specific markers as well as mammary epithelial and melanocytic-specific markers. Multilineage expression was detected in luminal (MCF-7 and SKBR3) and basal (MDA-MB-231) types of human breast cancer cell lines. We also observed comparable co-expression of these three cell lineage markers in MDA-MB-435 cells in vitro, in MDA-MB-435 primary tumors derived from parental and single cell clones and in lung metastases in vivo. Furthermore, ectoderm multi-lineage transdifferentiation was also found in human melanoma (Ul-MeL) and glioblastoma cell lines (U87 and D54). These observations indicate that aberrant multi-lineage transdifferentiation or lineage infidelity may be a wide spread phenomenon in cancer.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009712

Authors: Qingbei Zhang, Hanli Fan, Jikun Shen, Robert M. Hoffman, H. Rosie Xing

Institutions: University of Chicago, University of California San Diego, AntiCancer (United States)

Language: English

Topic: Cancer Cells and Metastasis

Subfield: Oncology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,382