Study on fentanyl effect in promoting the stemness of breast cancer cell via Wnt3a/β-catenin signaling pathway / 中国医师进修杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the effect and mechanism of fentanyl on promoting the stemness of breast cancer cell.Methods:From January 2018 to October 2019, human breast cancer cell line BT549 was used as the in vitro research object. Breast cancer cell BT549 was pretreated with 0.01 and 0.10 μmol/L fentanyl. Sphere formation assay and colony formation assay were performed to investigate the role of fentanyl on breast cancer cell stemness. Fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) was used to detect the mRNA level of stemness-related transcription factors gender-determining area Y box protein 2 (Sox2), octamer binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) and Nanog. Western blotting assay was performed to determine the level of Wnt3a/β-catenin pathway-related markers Wnt3a, phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase-3β (p-GSK-3β), glycogenase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) and β-catenin. After down-regulating Wnt3a, western blotting assay and sphere formation assay were performed.Results:The sphere diameter, colony formation rate and the expression of Sox2 mRNA, Oct4 mRNA, Nanog mRNA, Wnt3a, p-GSK-3β, GSK-3β and β-catenin in 0.01 and 0.10 μmol/L fentanyl-treated breast cancer cell were significant higher than those in blank control (131.22 ± 1.06) and (636.37 ± 0.02) μm vs. (72.68 ± 0.13) μm, (41.33 ± 0.03)% and (60.58 ± 1.08)% vs. (20.93 ± 0.15)%, 2.25 ± 0.20 and 3.82 ± 0.84 vs. 1.00, 1.87 ± 1.06 and 3.35 ± 0.04 vs. 1.00, 2.85 ± 0.03 and 4.36 ± 0.50 vs. 1.00, 1.82 ± 0.03 and 2.57 ± 0.42 vs. 1.00, 2.04 ± 0.13 and 2.81 ± 0.05 vs. 1.00, 1.62 ± 0.17 and 2.93 ± 0.06 vs. 1.00, 2.15 ± 0.02 and 3.54 ± 0.21 vs. 1.00, the indexes in 0.10 μmol/L fentanyl-treated breast cancer cell were significantly higher than those in 0.01 μmol/L fentanyl-treated breast cancer cell, and there were statistical differences ( P<0.01). After down-regulating Wnt3a, the expressions of p-GSK-3β, GSK-3β, β-catenin, Sox2, Oct4 and sphere diameter were significantly lower than those in blank control 0.12 ± 0.05 vs. 1.00, 0.53 ± 0.06 vs. 1.00 and 0.24 ± 0.21 vs. 1.00, 0.28 ± 0.10 vs. 1.00 and 0.06 ± 0.01 vs. 1.00, (18.14 ± 0.30) μm vs. (74.32 ± 0.12) μm, and there were statistical differences ( P<0.01). Conclusions:Fentanyl promotes breast cancer cell stemness by Wnt3a/β-catenin signaling pathway.