%0 Journal Article
%T The gene expression profiles of canine mammary cancer cells grown with carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) as a co-culture in vitro
%A Magdalena Kr¨®l
%A Karol M Paw£¿owski
%A Katarzyna Szyszko
%A Henryk Maciejewski
%A Izabella Dolka
%A Elisabetta Manuali
%A Micha£¿ Jank
%A Tomasz Motyl
%J BMC Veterinary Research
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1746-6148-8-35
%X A carcinoma-associated fibroblast cell line was isolated from a canine mammary cancer. Then, a co-culture of cancer cells with the CAFs was established and maintained for 72 hrs. Having sorted the cells, a global gene expression in cancer cells using DNA microarrays was examined. The analysis revealed an up-regulation of 100 genes and a down-regulation of 106 genes in the cancer cells grown as a co-culture with the CAFs in comparison to control conditions. The PANTHER binomial statistics tool was applied to determine statistically over-manifested pathways (p < 0.05). Bulk of the up-regulated genes are involved in the adhesion, the angiogenesis, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and generally take part in the developmental processes. These results were further confirmed using real-time qPCR. Moreover, a wound-healing assay and growth characteristics on Matrigel matrix showed that CAFs increase cancer cell migration and matrix invasion.The results of the current study showed that the co-culturing of cancer cells and the CAFs caused significant changes to the cancer gene expression. The presence of the CAFs in a microenvironment of cancer cells promotes adhesion, angiogenesis and EMT.Since canine mammary tumours in bulk are of epithelial origin this kind of cells is subjected to many studies. Over the last few years it has also been pin-pointed that concomitant changes occur within stromal cells, which contribute to the tumour microenvironment as well [1,2]. Tumour microenvironment embraces inflammatory, fibroblastic, endothelial cells, adipocytes and other. Changes within these stromal cells have been postulated to increase the tumorigenic phenotype of the epithelial cell, promote malignant transformation, induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and promote tumour spreading and metastasis [3]. It is worth noting however, that in almost all the tumours, the main cell type of cancer stromal compartment is fibroblast. These cells are usually atypical and
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/8/35