IL-6-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition promotes the generation of breast cancer stem-like cells analogous to mammosphere cultures

  • Authors:
    • Guozhu Xie
    • Qiwei Yao
    • Ying Liu
    • Shasha Du
    • Aihua Liu
    • Zhaoze Guo
    • Aimin Sun
    • Jian Ruan
    • Longhua Chen
    • Changsheng Ye
    • Yawei Yuan
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: November 30, 2011     https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2011.1275
  • Pages: 1171-1179
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Abstract

Recently, the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 has been reported as a potent inducer of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in breast cancer cells with an epithelial phenotype. Furthermore, EMT induces stem cell features in normal and transformed mammary cells. We explored whether IL-6-induced EMT promoted the generation of breast cancer stem-like cells (BrCSCs) in epithelial-like breast cancer cells, and whether the cytokines EGF and bFGF, analogous to IL-6, per se induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition, resulting in the enrichment of BrCSCs in mammosphere cultures. Herein, we provide evidence that IL-6 is capable of generating CD44+ cells with stem-like properties through induction of the EMT in the epithelial-like T47D breast cancer cells. We also show that mammosphere cultures of epithelial-like breast cancer cells, T47D, MCF7, ZR-75-1 and MDA-MB-453 cells, consistently generated stem-like cancer cells solely as a result of the EGF and bFGF cytokines in the mammosphere media mediating EMT. This finding demonstrated the link between the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and BrCSCs and identified an important mechanism for the enrichment of BrCSCs in mammosphere cultures. Thus, EMT appears to be a critical mechanism for the induction of cancer cells with stem-like properties, and EMT of non-stem cancer cells could be a source of CSCs.
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April 2012
Volume 40 Issue 4

Print ISSN: 1019-6439
Online ISSN:1791-2423

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Copy and paste a formatted citation
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Spandidos Publications style
Xie G, Yao Q, Liu Y, Du S, Liu A, Guo Z, Sun A, Ruan J, Chen L, Ye C, Ye C, et al: IL-6-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition promotes the generation of breast cancer stem-like cells analogous to mammosphere cultures. Int J Oncol 40: 1171-1179, 2012
APA
Xie, G., Yao, Q., Liu, Y., Du, S., Liu, A., Guo, Z. ... Yuan, Y. (2012). IL-6-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition promotes the generation of breast cancer stem-like cells analogous to mammosphere cultures. International Journal of Oncology, 40, 1171-1179. https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2011.1275
MLA
Xie, G., Yao, Q., Liu, Y., Du, S., Liu, A., Guo, Z., Sun, A., Ruan, J., Chen, L., Ye, C., Yuan, Y."IL-6-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition promotes the generation of breast cancer stem-like cells analogous to mammosphere cultures". International Journal of Oncology 40.4 (2012): 1171-1179.
Chicago
Xie, G., Yao, Q., Liu, Y., Du, S., Liu, A., Guo, Z., Sun, A., Ruan, J., Chen, L., Ye, C., Yuan, Y."IL-6-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition promotes the generation of breast cancer stem-like cells analogous to mammosphere cultures". International Journal of Oncology 40, no. 4 (2012): 1171-1179. https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2011.1275