Person:

Almendro, Vanessa

Two lineages, epithelial, and myoepithelial cells are the main cell populations in the normal mammary gland and in breast cancer. Traditionally, cancer research has been performed using commercial cell lines, but primary cell cultures obtained from fresh breast tissue are a powerful tool to study more reliably new aspects of mammary gland biology, including normal and pathological conditions. Nevertheless, the methods described to date have some technical problems in terms of cell viability and yield, which hamper work with primary mammary cells. Therefore, there is a need to optimize technology for the proper isolation of epithelial and myoepithelial cells. For this reason, we compared four methods in an effort to improve the isolation and primary cell culture of different cell populations of human mammary epithelium. The samples were obtained from healthy tissue of patients who had undergone mammoplasty or mastectomy surgery. We based our approaches on previously described methods, and incorporated additional steps to ameliorate technical efficiency and increase cell survival. We determined cell growth and viability by phase-contrast images, growth curve analysis and cell yield, and identified cell-lineage specific markers by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence in 3D cell cultures. These techniques allowed us to better evaluate the functional capabilities of these two main mammary lineages, using CD227/K19 (epithelial cells) and CD10/K14 (myoepithelial cells) antigens. Our results show that slow digestion at low enzymatic concentration combined with the differential centrifugation technique is the method that best fits the main goal of the present study: protocol efficiency and cell survival yield. In summary, we propose some guidelines to establish primary mammary epithelial cell lines more efficiently and to provide us with a strong research instrument to better understand the role of different epithelial cell types in the origin of breast cancer.

The nervous system is now recognized to be a relevant component of the tumor microenvironment. Receptors for neuropeptides and neurotransmitters have been identified in breast cancer. However, very little is known about the role of neurogenes in regulating breast cancer progression. Our purpose was to identify neurogenes associated with breast cancer tumorigenesis with a potential to be used as biomarker and/or targets for treatment. We used three databases of human genes: GeneGo, GeneCards and Eugenes to generate a list of 1266 relevant neurogenes. Then we used bioinformatics tools to interrogate two published breast cancer databases SAGE and MicMa (n=96) and generated a list of 7 neurogenes that are differentially express among breast cancer subtypes. The clinical potential was further investigated using the GOBO database (n=1881). We identified 6 neurogenes that are differentially expressed among breast cancer subtypes and whose expression correlates with prognosis. Histamine receptor1 (HRH1), neuropilin2 (NRP2), ephrin-B1 (EFNB1), neural growth factor receptor (NGFR) and amyloid precursor protein (APP) were differentially overexpressed in basal and HER2-enriched tumor samples and syntaxin 1A (STX1A) was overexpressed in HER2-enriched and luminal B tumors. Analysis of HRH1, NRP2, and STX1A expression using the GOBO database showed that their expression significantly correlated with a shorter overall survival (p < 0.0001) and distant metastasis-free survival (p < 0.0001). In contrast, elevated co-expression of NGFR, EFNB1 and APP was associated with longer overall (p < 0.0001) and metastasis-free survival (p < 0.0001). We propose that HRH1, NRP2, and STX1A can be used as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for basal and HER2-enriched breast cancer subtypes.