Non-genomic actions of estradiol and 4-OH-tamoxifen on murine breast cancer cells.

Estrogens and tamoxifen do not only exert their effects at the genomic level, but also play a role at the cell membrane activating downstream signaling pathways. We recently characterized an estrogen receptor-positive epithelial murine breast cancer cell line, LM05-E. Utilizing this cell line and MCF-7 cells, we compared the non-genomic effects of estradiol and 4-OH-tamoxifen. We showed that, similar to estradiol, tamoxifen activated the MAPK/ERK 1/2 pathway; however, we did not find activation of PI3K/AKT by either estradiol or tamoxifen. Short-term treatments with estradiol stimulated, whereas tamoxifen inhibited cell proliferation. Using pharmacological inhibitors we showed that the effect of estradiol was mediated by the MAPK/ERK 1/2 pathway, but that inhibition of this pathway did not affect tamoxifen. Surprisingly, however, blocking of PI3K/AKT signaling interfered with the inhibitory effect of tamoxifen. Analysis of the involvement of the EGFR support previous findings that designate this receptor as a mediator of the non-genomic effects of estradiol; blocking EGFR also reverses the inhibitory effect of tamoxifen. Finally, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were confirmed to be involved in the proliferative effect of estradiol. These results demonstrated the novel non-genomic effects of tamoxifen and revealed that pathways downstream of EGFR and PI3K/AKT are involved in the inhibition of cell proliferation. Caution should be exercised when analyzing strategies that aim at combining endocrine therapy with specific signaling inhibitors.

Tamoxifen selects for breast cancer cells with mammosphere forming capacity and increased growth rate.

Using the M05 mouse mammary tumor model and the MCF-7 cell line, we investigated the effect of tamoxifen treatment on the fraction of breast cancer cells with self-renewing capacity both in vitro and in vivo. We found that pretreatment with 4-OH-tamoxifen leads to an increase in cells with the ability of forming mammospheres that express lower levels of ER-α and increased expression of transcription factors associated with pluripotency. Moreover, exposure on plastic to 4-OH-tamoxifen by itself leads to an upregulation of these transcription factors. M05 tumors grown in mice treated with tamoxifen have a higher percentage of cells with self-renewing capacity and this proportion is conserved when tumors are passaged to nontreated mice. Furthermore, interruption of tamoxifen leads to increased tumor growth compared to tumors grown in mice that were never exposed to the antiestrogen. In addition, these tumors are characterized by a higher number of CD24(l)CD29(h) cells compared to tumors grown in nontreated mice. Treatment in vitro with 4-OH-tamoxifen for 5 days leads to a long lasting increase in the proportion of cells with self-renewing capacity even after 1 month of growth in the absence of the antiestrogen. Finally, we compared the mammosphere forming capacity of hormone dependent and independent passages of the M05 tumor and found that hormone independence is associated to an increase in cells with self-renewing capacity. Our results support previous findings that suggest that endocrine treatment selects for cells with stem cell properties.

The tumor microenvironment modulates tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer: a role for soluble stromal factors and fibronectin through ß1 integrin.

Tamoxifen resistance has been largely attributed to genetic alterations in the epithelial tumor cells themselves, such as overexpression of HER-2/Neu. However, in the clinic, only about 15-20% of cases of HER-2/Neu amplification has actually been correlated to the acquisition of endocrine resistance, suggesting that other mechanisms must be involved as well. Using the epithelial LM05-E and the fibroblastic LM05-F cell lines, derived from the estrogen dependent spontaneous M05 mouse mammary tumor, as well as MCF-7 cells, we analyzed whether soluble stromal factors or extracellular matrix components protected against tamoxifen induced cell death. Involvement of signaling pathways was determined by using specific inhibitors and western blot, and phosphorylation of the estrogen receptor alpha by western blot and immunofluorescence. Soluble factors produced by the fibroblastic cells protect the epithelial tumor cells from tamoxifen-induced cell death through a mechanism that involves EGFR and matrix metalloproteinases upstream of PI3K/AKT. Exogenous fibronectin by itself confers endocrine resistance through interaction with ß1 integrin and activation of PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK 1/2 pathways. The conferred resistance is reversed by blocking ß1 integrin. We show also that treatment with both conditioned medium and fibronectin leads to the phosphorylation of the estrogen receptor at serine-118, suggesting stromal factors as modulators of ER activity. Our results show that the tumor microenvironment can modulate tamoxifen resistance, providing an alternative explanation for why patients become refractory to hormone-therapy.

2-C-methyluridine modified hammerhead ribozyme against the estrogen receptor.

A new synthesis of 2'-C-methyluridine phosphoramidite is presented. Special emphasis is dedicated to the improvement of the protection of the tertiary 2'-hydroxyl group. Comparison to previous protecting strategies and analysis of stability under 5'-DMTr removing conditions are discussed. The synthetic incorporation of this modified nucleoside into the catalytic core of a hammerhead ribozyme against the estrogen receptor alpha protein (ER-alpha), and transfection experiments in MCF-7 cell line are also presented.

Establishment of an in vitro estrogen-dependent mouse mammary tumor model: a new tool to understand estrogen responsiveness and development of tamoxifen resistance in the context of stromal-epithelial interactions.

Currently, to our knowledge, there are no continuous cell lines derived from estrogen dependent, tamoxifen sensitive spontaneous mouse mammary carcinomas. We describe here the establishment and characterization of a cell line derived from the M05 mouse mammary tumor, LM05-Mix, composed of both an epithelial and a fibroblastic component. From it the respective epithelial LM05-E and fibroblastic LM05-F cell lines were generated by limiting dilution. Immunofluorescence studies confirmed that the epithelial cells were positive for E-cadherin, cytokeratins and vimentin whereas the fibroblastic cells were negative for the epithelial markers and positive for alpha-smooth muscle actin and vimentin. Both cell types expressed estrogen and progesterone receptors, although only the epithelial LM05-E cells were stimulated by estradiol and inhibited by tamoxifen. In the bicellular LM05-Mix cell line estradiol proved to stimulate cell proliferation whereas the response to tamoxifen was dependent on confluency and the degree of epithelial-fibroblastic interactions. The presence of membrane estrogen receptors in both cell types was suggested by the achievement of non-genomic responses to short treatments with estradiol, leading to the phosphorylation of ERK1/2. Finally, cytogenetic studies suggest that these two cell types represent independent cell populations within the tumor and would not be the result of an epithelial-mesenchymal transition. This model presents itself as a valuable alternative for the study of estrogen responsiveness and tamoxifen resistance in the context of epithelial-stromal interactions.

Decreased metastatic phenotype in cells resistant to aminolevulinic acid-photodynamic therapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel cancer treatment utilising a photosensitiser, visible light and oxygen. PDT often leaves a significant number of surviving tumour cells. In a previous work, we isolated and studied two PDT resistant clones derived from the mammary adenocarcinoma LM3 line (Int. J. Oncol. 29 (2006) 397-405). The isolated Clon 4 and Clon 8 exhibited a more fibroblastic, dendritic pattern and were larger than the parentals. In the present work we studied the metastatic potential of the two clones in comparison with LM3. We found that 100% of LM3 invaded Matrigel, whereas only 19+/-6% and 24+/-7% of Clon 4 and Clon 8 cells invaded. In addition, 100% of LM3 cells migrated towards a chemotactic stimulus whereas 38+/-8% and 73+/-10% of Clones 4 and 8, respectively, were able to migrate. In vivo, 100% of the LM3 injected mice developed spontaneous lung metastasis, whereas none of the Clon 8 did, and only one of the mice injected with Clon 4 did. No differences were found in the proteolytic enzyme profiles among the cells. Anchorage-dependent adhesion was also impaired in vivo in the resistant clones, evidenced by the lower tumour take, latency time and growth rates, although both clones showed in vitro higher binding to collagen I without overexpression of beta1 integrin. This is the first work where the metastatic potential of cells surviving to PDT has been studied. PDT strongly affects the invasive phenotype of these cells, probably related to a higher binding to collagen. These findings may be crucial for the outcome of ALA-PDT of metastatic tumours, although further studies are needed to extrapolate the results to the clinic employing another photosensitisers and cell types.