Abstract
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a frequently used thermal ablation technique for breast tumors. The study aimed to identify the effect of sublethal heat treatment on biological function of breast cancer cells and reveal its potential molecular mechanism. The expression profile of dysregulated proteins in sublethal heat treated breast cancer cells was analyzed by quantitative proteomic analysis. The differentially expressed proteins in the sublethal heat treated breast cancer were identified. The potential biological functions of these proteins were evaluated. The proliferation and invasion ability of breast cancer cells were enhanced after sublethal heat treatment. The expression profile of proteins in sublethal heat treated breast cancer cells was abundant, and most of which were newly discovered. A total of 206 differentially expressed proteins were identified. Among them, 101 proteins were downregulated while 105 proteins were upregulated. GO and KEGG analysis indicated that various systems were involved in the process of sublethal heat treatment including cancer, immune system, et al. Immunohistochemistry staining showed that the expression of Heat shock protein 1B, NOB1 and CRIP1 was highly expressed while the expression of BCLAF1 was lower in sublethal heat treated group. The proliferation and invasion ability of breast cancer cells were enhanced after sublethal heat treatment. Sublethal heat treatment caused gene alterations in cancer and immune system. Heat shock protein 1B, NOB1 and CRIP1 were upregulated while BCLAF1 was downregulated in breast cancer after sublethal heat treatment.
Highlights
Thermal ablation techniques have been accepted as alternative curative therapeutics to surgery for a wide range of tumors due to their advantages including shorter hospital stay and minimal invasiveness [1]
The sublethal heat treatment would promote the metastasis of residual hepatocellular carcinoma cells via upregulating flotillin proteins [9]
The colony formation assay was done to evaluate the impact of sublethal heat treatment on 4T1 cells proliferation, which showed that there were more clones formed after sublethal heat treatment (Figure 1A)
Summary
Thermal ablation techniques have been accepted as alternative curative therapeutics to surgery for a wide range of tumors due to their advantages including shorter hospital stay and minimal invasiveness [1]. Sublethal heat treatment may ablate a relatively small area, and lead to tumor residual, which causes recurrence and metastasis [2, 3]. The recurrence rate after radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is higher than that after surgery [4]. In the present, thermal ablation techniques are mostly applied in malignancies with small tumor size, widely metastasized malignant tumors or in benign tumors for volume reduction [5,6,7]. RFA and high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) are frequently used thermal ablation techniques for breast tumors. The effect of sublethal heat treatment on breast cancer cells and its mechanism has not been clearly identified
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