Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Oncol Res. 2024 Feb 6;32(3):477-487. doi: 10.32604/or.2023.043926. eCollection 2024.
Intracellular communications between breast cancer and fibroblast cells were reported to be involved in cancer proliferation, growth, and therapy resistance. The hallmarks of cancer-fibroblast interactions, consisting of caveolin 1 (Cav1) and mono-carboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4) (metabolic coupling markers), along with IL-6, TGFβ, and lactate secretion, are considered robust biomarkers predicting recurrence and metastasis. In order to promote a novel phenotype in normal fibroblasts, we predicted that breast cancer cells could be able to cause loss of Cav1 and increase of MCT4, as well as elevate IL-6 and TGFβ in nearby normal fibroblasts. We created a co-culture model using breast cancer (4T1) and normal fibroblast (NIH3T3) cell lines cultured under specific experimental conditions in order to directly test our theory. Moreover, we show that long-term co-culture of breast cancer cells and normal fibroblasts promotes loss of Cav1 and gain of MCT4 in adjacent fibroblasts and increase lactate secretion. These results were validated using the monoculture of each group separately as a control. In this system, we show that metformin inhibits IL-6 and TGFβ secretion and re-expresses Cav1 in both cells. However, MCT4 and lactate stayed high after treatment with metformin. In conclusion, our work shows that co-culture with breast cancer cells may cause significant alterations in the phenotype and secretion of normal fibroblasts. Metformin, however, may change this state and affect fibroblasts' acquired phenotypes. Moreover, mitochondrial inhibition by metformin after 8 days of treatment, significantly hinders tumor growth in mouse model of breast cancer.
乳腺癌细胞和成纤维细胞之间的细胞内通讯被报道参与癌症增殖、生长和治疗抵抗。癌症和成纤维细胞相互作用的特征包括窖蛋白 1(Cav1)和单羧酸转运蛋白 4(MCT4)(代谢偶联标志物),以及 IL-6、TGFβ和乳酸分泌,被认为是预测复发和转移的强大生物标志物。为了促进正常成纤维细胞的新表型,我们预测乳腺癌细胞能够导致 Cav1 丢失和 MCT4 增加,以及邻近正常成纤维细胞中 IL-6 和 TGFβ 的升高。我们使用乳腺癌(4T1)和成纤维细胞(NIH3T3)细胞系创建了共培养模型,在特定的实验条件下培养,以直接验证我们的理论。此外,我们表明,乳腺癌细胞和正常成纤维细胞的长期共培养促进了邻近成纤维细胞中 Cav1 的丢失和 MCT4 的获得以及乳酸的分泌增加。这些结果通过单独培养每组作为对照进行了验证。在这个系统中,我们表明二甲双胍抑制 IL-6 和 TGFβ 的分泌,并在两种细胞中重新表达 Cav1。然而,在用二甲双胍治疗后,MCT4 和乳酸仍然很高。总之,我们的工作表明与乳腺癌细胞共培养可能导致正常成纤维细胞表型和分泌的显著改变。然而,二甲双胍可能会改变这种状态并影响成纤维细胞获得的表型。此外,用二甲双胍治疗 8 天后抑制线粒体,可显著抑制乳腺癌小鼠模型中的肿瘤生长。