Cancer-associated fibroblasts-induced proliferation of breast cancer cell depends on WNT10B up-regulation

Abstract

Objective To study how fibroblasts can influence breast cancer cells MCF-7 proliferation and the expression of WNT10B.Methods Transwell co-culture of 1.0 × 105 fibroblasts and 1.0 × 105MCF-7 was done for 2 days.Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of WNT10B in MCF-7 cells.Three-dimensional co-culture 5.0 × 103 fibroblasts and 2.0 ×103 MCF-7 cells were subjected to three-dimensional co-culture for 12 days for assaying the clone formation rate (CFE) of MCF-7 cells.Results Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) increased significantly the mRNA expression of WNT10B as compared with normal mammary fibroblasts (NBFs) (3.864 2 ± 0.105 2 vs.2.170 6 ±0.064 6,P ＜0.05).CAFs increased significantly the CFE of MCF-7 cells as compared with the controls [(37.83 ± 2.02) ％ vs.(6.67 ± 1.89) ％,P ＜ 0.05],but NBFs did not [(8.83 ± 2.52) ％ vs.(6.67 ± 1.89) ％,P ＞ 0.05],the neutralizing WNT antibody decreased the CFE of MCF-7 cells in CAFs three-dimensional culture [(11.67 ± 2.56) ％ vs.(37.83 ± 2.02) ％,P ＜ 0.05].Conclusion Our results suggest that WNT10B signaling is critical for CAFs-induced growth of human breast cancer cell lines. Key words: WNT10B; Carcinoma associated fibroblasts; Breast cancer