Unravelling heterogeneous effects of cancer‑associated fibroblasts on poor prognosis markers in breast cancer EM‑G3 cell line: <em>In vitro</em>‑targeted treatment (anti‑IL-6, anti‑VEGF-A, anti‑MFGE8) based on transcriptomic profiling

Urban,Lukáš; Novák,Štepán; Čoma,Matúš; Dvořánková,Barbora; Lacina,Lukáš; Šáchová,Jana; Hradilová,Miluše; Svatoňová,Petra; Kolář,Michal; Strnad,Hynek; Březinová,Jana; Smetana Jr,Karel; Gál,Peter; Szabo,Pavol

doi:10.3892/or.2023.8662

Unravelling heterogeneous effects of cancer‑associated fibroblasts on poor prognosis markers in breast cancer EM‑G3 cell line: In vitro‑targeted treatment (anti‑IL-6, anti‑VEGF-A, anti‑MFGE8) based on transcriptomic profiling

Authors:
- Lukáš Urban
- Štepán Novák
- Matúš Čoma
- Barbora Dvořánková
- Lukáš Lacina
- Jana Šáchová
- Miluše Hradilová
- Petra Svatoňová
- Michal Kolář
- Hynek Strnad
- Jana Březinová
- Karel Smetana Jr
- Peter Gál
- Pavol Szabo
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Affiliations: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, 040 11 Košice, Slovak Republic, Institute of Anatomy, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic, Laboratory of Genomics and Bioinformatics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, 142 20 Prague, Czech Republic, Cytogenetic Laboratory, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Published online on: November 15, 2023 https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2023.8662
Article Number: 3
Copyright : © Urban et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY 4.0].

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Abstract

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. Although dramatically increased survival rates of early diagnosed cases have been observed, late diagnosed patients and metastatic cancer may still be considered fatal. The present study's main focus was on cancer‑associated fibroblasts (CAFs) which is an active component of the tumor microenvironment (TME) regulating the breast cancer ecosystem. Transcriptomic profiling and analysis of CAFs isolated from breast cancer skin metastasis, cutaneous basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma unravelled major gene candidates such as IL6, VEGFA and MFGE8 that induced co‑expression of keratins‑8/‑14 in the EM‑G3 cell line derived from infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma. Western blot analysis of selected keratins (keratin‑8, ‑14, ‑18, ‑19) and epithelial‑mesenchymal transition‑associated markers (SLUG, SNAIL, ZEB1, E‑/N‑cadherin, vimentin) revealed specific responses pointing to certain heterogeneity of the studied CAF populations. Experimental in vitro treatment using neutralizing antibodies against IL-6, VEGF‑A and MFGE8 attenuated the modulatory effect of CAFs on EM‑G3 cells. The present study provided novel data in characterizing and understanding the interactions between CAFs and EM‑G3 cells in vitro. CAFs of different origins support the pro‑inflammatory microenvironment and influence the biology of breast cancer cells. This observation potentially holds significant interest for the development of novel, clinically relevant approaches targeting the TME in breast cancer. Furthermore, its implications extend beyond breast cancer and have the potential to impact a wide range of other cancer types.

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