Phenotypic, structural, and ultrastructural analysis of triple-negative breast cancer cell lines and breast cancer stem cell subpopulation.

Phenotypic, structural, and ultrastructural analysis of triple-negative breast cancer cell lines and breast cancer stem cell subpopulation. Eur Biophys J. 2019 Sep 04;: Authors: Moreira MP, Brayner FA, Alves LC, Cassali GD, Silva LM Abstract Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly heterogeneous disease, which influences the therapeutic response and makes difficult the discovery of effective targets. This heterogeneity is attributed to the presence of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), which determines resistance to chemotherapy and subsequently disease recurrence and metastasis. In this context, this work aimed to evaluate the morphological and phenotypic cellular heterogeneity of two TNBC cell lines cultured in monolayer and tumorsphere (TS) models by fluorescence and electron microscopy and flow cytometry. The BT-549 and Hs 578T analyses demonstrated large phenotypic and morphological heterogeneity between these cell lines, as well as between the cell subpopulations that compose them. BT-549 and Hs 578T are heterogeneous considering the cell surface marker CD44 and CD24 expression, characterizing BCSC mesenchymal-like cells (CD44+/CD24-), epithelial cells (CD44-/CD24+), hybrid cells with mesenchymal and epithelial features (CD44+/CD24+), and CD44-/CD24- cells. BCSC epithelial-like cells (ALDH+) were found in BT-549, BT-549 TS, and Hs 578T TS; however, only BT-549 TS showed a high ALDH activity. Ultrastructural characterizat...
Source: European Biophysics Journal : EBJ - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Eur Biophys J Source Type: research