Regulation of murine solid tumors dissemination by retinoic acid system and its receptors

El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo estudiar el rol del sistema retinoide en la progresión del tumor mamario murino LM38-LP, haciendo énfasis en las interacciones celulares entre su componente luminal (LEP) y mioepitelial (MEP). Determinamos que la línea LM38-LP expresa receptores retinoides y que los mismos son funcionales. El tratamiento con retinoides induce en la línea un arresto del ciclo celular. El mismo tratamiento induce apoptosis sólo en el compartimiento LEP y senescencia en las células MEP, mientras que una pequeña población celular que mediaría la interacción entre ambos componentes continúa ciclando. Asimismo se ha podido determinar la existencia de una población con características de células stem/progenitoras parcialmente resistentes al tratamiento con retinoides. Hemos estudiado además mecanismos implicados en la diseminación metastásica de la línea LM38-LP. En este sentido hemos observado que los retinoides inhiben tanto la actividad de proteasas secretadas como la capacidad migratoria, mientras que aumentan la capacidad adhesiva a componentes de la matriz extracelular. Los retinoides inhiben la invasión sólo en la población MEP de la línea LM38-LP. Se analizó la transcripción de un panel de genes implicados en el proceso de transición epitelio-mesenquimática. Se pudo determinar que el ácido retinoico modula estos genes diferencialmente entre los compartimientos LEP y MEP conduciendo a la línea hacia un fenotipo menos agresivo. Se generaron sublíneas que presentan silenciados o sobreexpresados los distintos receptores retinoideos, lo que permitió evaluar la participación de cada uno de ellos en la progresión tumoral maligna de la línea en estudio. Este trabajo sugiere que los retinoides ejercen efectos pro-apoptóticos y citostáticos diferenciales en los diferentes compartimentos celulares de la línea LM38-LP. Asimismo los resultados sugieren la existencia de una tercera población con capacidad clonogénica y resistente a los retinoides.The objective of the present work is to study the role of retinoid system in the murine mammary tumor LM38-LP progression, emphasizing luminal and myoepithelial cellular interactions. We determined that LM38-LP cell line expresses retinoic acid receptors and that these are functional. Retinoid treatment induces cell cycle arrest in the cell line. Same treatment induces apoptosis only in LEP compartment, senescence in MEP cells, while a small cellular population that mediates interaction between LEP and MEP compartment remains cycling. We determined the presence of a small cell population with characteristics of stem/progenitor cells, partially resistant to retinoid treatment. Besides, we studied some mechanism involved in metastatic dissemination in LM38-LP cell line. In this way, we observed that retinoids inhibit both secreted protease activity and migratory capacity, while increase adhesion capacity to some components of extracellular matrix. Retinoids inhibit invasion only in LM38-LP cell line MEP population. A set of genes implicated in epithelial-mesechymal transition were analyzed employing a qPCR array. We could determine that retinoic acid modulated these genes in a differential way in LEP and MEP compartments, leading to a less aggressive phenotype. By using sub lines generated either silencing or over expressing different retinoic acid receptors, we analyzed the role of the different receptors in the metastatic progression of LM38-LP cells. This work suggests that retinoids exert differential pro apoptotic and citostatic functions on the different cell components of the mammary tumor cell line LM38-LP. Likewise, these results suggest the existence of a third cell population with clonogenic capacity and resistant to retinoids.Fil:Campodónico, Paola Bernadette. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina

Beyond interstrand crosslinks repair: contribution of FANCD2 and other Fanconi Anemia proteins to the replication of DNA

Biallelic mutations of FANCD2 and other components of the Fanconi Anemia (FA) pathway cause a disease characterized by bone marrow failure, cancer predisposition and a striking sensitivity to agents that induce crosslinks between the two complementary DNA strands (inter-strand crosslinks-ICL). Such genotoxins were used to characterize the contribution of the FA pathway to the genomic stability of cells, thus unravelling the biological relevance of ICL repair in the context of the disease. Notwithstanding this, whether the defect in ICL repair as the sole trigger for the multiple physiological alterations observed in FA patients is still under investigation. Remarkably, ICL-independent functions of FANCD2 and other components of the FA pathway were recently reported. FANCD2 contributes to the processing of very challenging double strand ends (DSEs: one ended Double Strand Breaks -DSBs- created during DNA replication). Other ICL-independent functions of FANCD2 include prevention of DNA breakage at stalled replication forks and facilitation of chromosome segregation at the end of M phase. The current understanding of replication-associated functions of FANCD2 and its relevance for the survival of genomically stable cells is herein discussed.Fil: Federico, Maria Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Fundación Instituto Leloir; ArgentinaFil: Campodónico, Paola Bernadette. Fundación Instituto Leloir; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Paviolo, Natalia Soledad. Fundación Instituto Leloir; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Gottifredi, Vanesa. Fundación Instituto Leloir; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentin

A clinically relevant bi-cellular murine mammary tumor model as a useful tool for evaluating the effect of retinoic acid signaling on tumor progression

BACKGROUND: The effect of retinoic acid (RA) on breast cancer progression is controversial. Our objective was to obtain information about breast cancer progression, taking advantage of the ER-negative murine mammary adenocarcinoma model LM38 (LM38-LP constituted by luminal (LEP) and myoepithelial-like cells (MEP), LM38-HP mainly composed of spindle-shaped epithelial cells, and LM38-D2 containing only large myoepithelial cells), and to validate the role of the retinoic acid receptors (RARs) in each cell-type compartment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied the expression and functionality of the RARs in LM38 cell lines. We analyzed cell growth and cell cycle distribution, apoptosis, the activity of proteases, motility properties, and expression of the molecules involved in these pathways. We also evaluated tumor growth and dissemination in vivo under retinoid treatment. RESULTS: LM38 cell lines expressed most retinoic receptor isotypes that were functional. However, only the bi-cellular LM38-LP cells responded to retinoids by increasing RARβ2 and CRBP1 expression. The growth of LM38 cell sublines was inhibited by retinoids, first by inducing arrest in MEP cells, then apoptosis in LEP cells. Retinoids induced inhibitory effects on motility, invasiveness, and activity of proteolytic enzymes, mainly in the LM38-LP cell line. In in-vivo assays with the LM38-LP cell line, RA treatment impaired both primary tumor growth and lung metastases dissemination. CCONCLUSION: These in-vivo and in-vitro results show that to achieve maximum effects of RA on tumor progression both the LEP and MEP cell compartments have to be present, suggesting that the interaction between the LEP and MEP cells is crucial to full activation of the RARs.Fil: Todaro, Laura Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncologia "Angel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Veloso, María José. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncologia "Angel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Campodónico, Paola Bernadette. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncologia "Angel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Puricelli, Lydia Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncologia "Angel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Farias, Eduardo Francisco. Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Bal, Elisa Dora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncologia "Angel H. Roffo"; Argentin

Involvement of PKC delta (PKCδ) in the resistance against different doxorubicin analogs

Doxorubicin is an anti-tumor antibiotic widely used in the management of cancer patients. Its main mechanism of action involves the generation of DNA damage and the inhibition of topoisomerase II, promoting apoptosis. AD 198 is a novel doxorubicin analog devoid of DNA binding and topoisomerase II inhibitory capacities. It has been proposed that AD 198 induces apoptosis by activating protein kinase C delta (PKCδ); a PKC isoform described as growth inhibitory in a large number of cell types. We have previously demonstrated that PKCδ over-expression in NMuMG cells induced the opposite effect, promoting proliferation and cell survival. In this study, we found that PKCδ overexpression confers an enhanced cell death resistance against AD 198 cytotoxic effect and against AD 288, another doxorubicin analog that preserves its mechanism of action. These resistances involve PKCδ-mediated activation of two well-known survival pathways: Akt and NF-κB. While the resistance against AD 198 could be abrogated upon the inhibition of either Akt or NF-κB pathways, only NF-κB inhibition could revert the resistance to AD 288. Altogether, our results indicate that PKCδ increases cell death resistance against different apoptosis inductors, independently of their mechanism of action, through a differential modulation of Akt and NF-κB pathways. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in PKCδ-induced resistance and may greatly impact in the rationale design of isozyme-specific PKC modulators as therapeutic agents. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2010.Fil: Díaz Bessone, María Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Berardi, Damian Emilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Campodónico, Paola Bernadette. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Todaro, Laura Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Lothstein, Leonard. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Center for Cancer Research; Estados UnidosFil: Bal, Elisa Dora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Urtreger, Alejandro Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentin

Alteration of serum and tumoral neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) isoforms in patients with brain tumors

The neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) is involved in the intercellular junctions of neurons and glial cells. We investigated its relevance as a biomarker in gliomas which main characteristic is their high invasiveness. We studied by Western blot the pattern of serum NCAM bands in patients with gliomas (n = 34), with brain metastasis of different primary cancers (n = 27) and with benign brain tumors (n = 22)] compared with healthy controls (n = 69). For densitometric analysis NCAM bands ≥130 kDa (HMW) and <130 kDa (LMW) were clustered. We observed that glioma patients presented higher NCAM HMW and lower NCAM LMW levels than control subjects (P < 0.01). A similar pattern was found in patients with brain metastasis or brain benign tumors, suggesting that the pattern of serum NCAM bands would be useful to detect brain tumor pathology. On the other hand, serum NCAM expression was not associated with the main clinicopathological features of gliomas, including overall survival. Interestingly, we found that 9/12 patients with glioma showed a significant decrease in NCAM HMW/LMW ratio between 1–3 months after successful tumor removal. Thus, serum NCAM could be a useful marker for monitoring treatment. NCAM expression was also analyzed at tissular level in 59 glioma sections from paraffined tumors. We observed that NCAM immunostaining was inversely correlated with the histological grade of malignancy, remaining this association in a multivariate analysis. Besides, loss of NCAM staining was significantly associated with bad prognosis in an univariate analysis.Fil: Todaro, Laura Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Christiansen, Silvia Beatriz. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Varela, Mirta. Hospital Italiano; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Campodónico, Paola Bernadette. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Pallotta Rodriguez, Maria Guadalupe. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Lastiri, José. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Sacerdote de Lustig, Eugenia. Hospital Italiano; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bal, Elisa Dora. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Puricelli, Lydia Ines. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaUnidad documental simpl

Myoepithelial and luminal breast cancer cells exhibit different responses to all-trans retinoic acid

Purpose: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women worldwide. The exact role of luminal epithelial (LEP) and myoephitelial (MEP) cells in breast cancer development is as yet unclear, as also how retinoids may affect their behaviour. Here, we set out to evaluate whether retinoids may differentially regulate cell type-specific processes associated with breast cancer development using the bi-cellular LM38-LP murine mammary adenocarcinoma cell line as a model. Materials and methods: The bi-cellular LM38-LP murine mammary cell line was used as a model throughout all experiments. LEP and MEP subpopulations were separated using inmunobeads, and the expression of genes known to be involved in epithelial to mysenchymal transition (EMT) was assessed by qPCR after all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) treatment. In vitro invasive capacities of LM38-LP cells were evaluated using 3D Matrigel cultures in conjunction with confocal microscopy. Also, in vitro proliferation, senescence and apoptosis characteristics were evaluated in the LEP and MEP subpopulations after ATRA treatment, as well as the effects of ATRA treatment on the clonogenic, adhesive and invasive capacities of these cells. Mammosphere assays were performed to detect stem cell subpopulations. Finally, the orthotopic growth and metastatic abilities of LM38-LP monolayer and mammosphere-derived cells were evaluated in vivo. Results: We found that ATRA treatment modulates a set of genes related to EMT, resulting in distinct gene expression signatures for the LEP or MEP subpopulations. We found that the MEP subpopulation responds to ATRA by increasing its adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM) components and by reducing its invasive capacity. We also found that ATRA induces apoptosis in LEP cells, whereas the MEP compartment responded with senescence. In addition, we found that ATRA treatment results in smaller and more organized LM38-LP colonies in Matrigel. Finally, we identified a third subpopulation within the LM38-LP cell line with stem/progenitor cell characteristics, exhibiting a partial resistance to ATRA. Conclusions: Our results show that the luminal epithelial (LEP) and myoephitelial (MEP) mammary LM38-P subpopulations respond differently to ATRA, i.e., the LEP subpopulation responds with increased cell cycle arrest and apoptosis and the MEP subpopulation responds with increased senescence and adhesion, thereby decreasing its invasive capacity. Finally, we identified a third subpopulation with stem/progenitor cell characteristics within the LM38-LP mammary adenocarcinoma cell line, which appears to be non-responsive to ATRA.Fil: Berardi, Damian Emilio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Flumian, Carolina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Campodónico, Paola Bernadette. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Urtreger, Alejandro Jorge. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Díaz Bessone, María Inés. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Motter, Andrea N.. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud “Dr. C.G. Malbrán”; ArgentinaFil: Bal, Elisa Dora. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Farias, Eduardo F.. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Estados UnidosFil: Todaro, Laura Beatriz. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin