Assessment of apoptosis in human breast tissue using an antibody against the active form of caspase 3: relation to tumour histopathological characteristics

Apoptosis is of important significance in the pathogenesis of cancer. Many methods are available for the measurement of apoptosis but the ‘gold standard’ is to identify apoptotic cells by their morphological features using microscopy. Caspase 3 is a cytosolic enzyme that is activated only in cells committed to undergo apoptosis. The activation of caspase 3 precedes the development of the classical morphological features of apoptosis. Using immunohistochemistry with an antibody against the active form of caspase 3, the apoptotic index (AI) was measured in 116 samples of human breast tissue (22 normal/benign and 94 invasive carcinomas). The AI obtained by measuring caspase activation has a strong correlation with the AI derived by morphological assessment (r = 0.736, P < 0.01). The AI is higher in the invasive group than in the benign group (P = 0.008), and in invasive cancer high AI is associated with high tumour grade (P = 0.013), positive node status (P < 0.001) and negative steroid receptor status (P = 0.001 for ER; P = 0.004 for PR). No significant association is observed between AI and tumour size. Measurement of apoptosis by immunohistochemistry using an antibody against the active form of caspase 3 is therefore reliable and correlates strongly with morphological assessment. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign  http://www.bjcancer.co

Regulation of breast cancer stem cell activity by signaling through the Notch4 receptor

The Notch receptor signalling pathway plays an important role in breast development, regulation of stem cells and differentiation of luminal progenitor cells. The pathway also plays a significant role in breast cancer development and progression. However, which of the Notch receptors that regulate breast cancer stem cells is unknown. We assessed stem cell activity in breast cancer cell lines and nine primary human tumour samples. In vitro and in vivo breast cancer stem cell activity was enriched using selection of anoikis resistant cells or cells expressing the membrane phenotype ESA(+)/CD44(+)/CD24(low). We compared the activation of Notch receptors in the breast cancer stem cell-enriched population to luminally differentiated cells and studied the effects of pathway inhibition, both in vitro and in vivo. We find that Notch4 signalling activity is 8-fold higher in the breast cancer stem cell-enriched cells compared to the differentiated cells while Notch1 activation is 4-fold lower in breast cancer stem cells. Furthermore, pharmacological or genetic Notch inhibition markedly reduced breast cancer stem cell activity in vitro, and significantly reduced tumour formation in vivo. Importantly, cells with Notch4 knock-down using specific shRNA formed fewer mammosphere colonies than Notch1 knock-down cells. In vivo Notch1 knock-down, like pharmacological inhibition, reduced the number and size of tumours but Notch4 knock-down suppressed tumour initiation completely. Our findings indicate that Notch4-targeted therapies will be more effective than targeting Notch1 in suppressing breast cancer recurrence initiated by breast cancer stem cells