Abstract 1426: Lung epithelial cells induce both phenotype alteration and senescence in breast cancer cells

Abstract

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. The lung is one of the most common sites of breast cancer metastasis. While metastatic seeding is often accompanied by a dormancy-promoting mesenchymal to epithelial reverting transitions (MErT), we aimed to determine whether lung epithelial cells can impart this phenotype on aggressive breast cancer cells.

Methods: Co-culture experiments of normal lung epithelial cell lines (SAEC, NHBE or BEAS-2B) and breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 or MDA-MB-231) were conducted. Flow cytometry analysis, immunofluorescence staining for E-cadherin or Ki-67 and senescence associated beta-galactosidase assays assessed breast cancer cell outgrowth and phenotype.

Results: Co-culture of the breast cancer cells had different effects on breast cancer cells. The epithelial MCF-7 cells were increased in number but still clustered even if in a slight more mesenchymal spindle morphology. On the other hand, the mesenchymal MDA-MB-231 cells survived but did not progressively grow out in co-culture. These aggressive carcinoma cells underwent an epithelial shift as indicated by cuboidal morphology and increased E-cadherin. Disruption of E-cadherin express in MDA-MB-231 using shRNA prevented this phenotypic reversion in coculture. In addition, we had noted enlarged MDA-MB-231 cells in the co-cultures with SAEC and NHBE but not BEAS-2B cells as suggestion of senescence. A subset of these cells stained with the senescence associated marker β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal). Lung cells limited cancer cell growth kinetics as noted by both (1) some of the cells becoming larger and positive for senescence markers/negative for proliferation marker Ki-67, and (2) Ki-67 positive cells significantly decreasing in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells after co-culture.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that normal lung epithelial cells can drive an epithelial phenotype and suppress the growth kinetics of breast cancer cells by changing their phenotypes.Similar to the hepatocytes, these normal cells may promote the survival, seeding and even dormancy of aggressive mesenchymal carcinoma cells, with phenotypes similar to MDA-MB-231 cells, but also provide progressive signaling when stressed accounting for the spindle morphology and slightly increased growth rates of the epithelial carcinoma cells, such as those MCF-7 represents. In this latter manner, insults the small airway may provoke an outgrowth from dormant breast cancer cells.

Citation Format: Masashi Furukawa, Alan Wells, Sarah Wheeler, Amanda M. Clark. Lung epithelial cells induce both phenotype alteration and senescence in breast cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1426. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1426