We describe a novel mechanical characterization method that has directly measured the stiffness of cancer spheroids for the first time to our knowledge. Stiffness is known to be a key parameter that characterizes cancerous and normal cells. Atomic force microscopy or optical tweezers have been typically used for characterization of single cells with the measurable forces ranging from sub pN to ...

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor 2 (FGFR-2) polymorphisms have been associated with an increase in estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor (PR)-positive breast cancer risk; however, a clear mechanistic association between FGFR-2 and steroid hormone receptors remains elusive. In previous works, we have shown a cross talk between FGF2 and progestins in mouse mammary carcinomas. To inve...

BACKGROUND Zoledronic acid (ZA) has antiresorptive effects and protects from bone metastasis in women with early breast cancer. In addition, in postmenopausal women with endocrine responsive breast cancer ZA prolongs DFS. The exact mechanism is still unclear. We have therefore investigated the effect of increasing concentrations of ZA in breast cancer cell lines in the absence or presence of es...

Loss of sensitivity to growth inhibition by transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta is a phenomenon often observed in human epithelial tumor cells and is linked to malignant progression. We tested a panel of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and -negative breast cell lines for their sensitivity to TGF-beta and a related member of the TGF-beta superfamily, activin. Both TGF-beta-sensitive (MCF7, Hs5...

Progesterone receptors (PR) are the strongest predictors of response to hormone therapy in metastatic breast cancer, while PR and the DNA indices of cell ploidy and percentage of S phase are useful prognostic indicators in early stage breast cancer. We have developed a flow cytometry method to measure PR and DNA indices simultaneously using two aneuploid breast cancer cell lines—PR-positive T...

We explored the crosstalk between cell survival (phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt) and mitogenic (Ras/Raf/MEK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)) signaling pathways activated by an epidermal growth factor (EGF) and analyzed their sensitivity to small molecule inhibitors in the PI3K-mutant estrogen receptor (ER)-positive MCF7 and T47D breast cancer cells. In contrast to MCF7 cel...

We report here that both kappa B-dependent transactivation of a reporter gene and NF-kappa B activation in response to tumor necrosis factor (TNF alpha) or H2O2 treatments are deficient in human T47D cell transfectants that overexpress seleno-glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx). These cells feature low reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and decreased intracellular ROS burst in response to TNF alph...

We have examined mononuclear cell preparations from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia [CML] for binding of and response to 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol [1,25-(OH)2D3]. Whole cells specifically took up [3H]-1,25-(OH)2D3 with high affinity (Kd 3.6 X 10(-11) M) and low capacity. Subcellular fractionation of labeled cells showed that binding was restricted to cytosols and nuclei. Sucrose grad...

Collective cell migration is a key feature of transition ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) to invasive (IDC) among many other cancers, yet the microenvironmental factors and underlying mechanisms that trigger collective remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated two factors, tumor-intrinsic hypoxia tumor-secreted (secretome), as triggers using three-dimensional (3D) discrete-sized microtumor...

The success of breast cancer therapy is still not optimal and the side effects caused by therapy. use standard drug combinations with herbs often used as co-chemotherapy believed to increase drug's effectiveness. However, research on antagonistic effect combination minimal. This study examines anticancer soursop leaf aquoxes extract combined impact doxorubicin MCF7 T47D cells. pure in vitro exp...