Secretory phenomena in the non-lactating human mammary gland

Effective exosomes in breast cancer: focusing on diagnosis and treatment of cancer progression

Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent aggressive malignant tumor in women worldwide and develops from breast tissue. Although cutting-edge treatment methods have been used and current mortality rates have decreased, BC control is still not satisfactory. Clarifying the underlying molecular mechanisms will help clinical options. Extracellular vesicles known as exosomes mediate cellular communication by delivering a variety of biomolecules, including proteins, oncogenes, oncomiRs, and even pharmacological substances. These transferable bioactive molecules can alter the transcriptome of target cells and affect signaling pathways that are related to tumors. Numerous studies have linked exosomes to BC biology, including therapeutic resistance and the local microenvironment. Exosomes' roles in tumor treatment resistance, invasion, and BC metastasis are the main topics of discussion in this review.

Extracellular Vesicles in Breast Cancer: From Biology and Function to Clinical Diagnosis and Therapeutic Management

Breast cancer (BC) is the first worldwide most frequent cancer in both sexes and the most commonly diagnosed in females. Although BC mortality has been thoroughly declining over the past decades, there are still considerable differences between women diagnosed with early BC and when metastatic BC is diagnosed. BC treatment choice is widely dependent on precise histological and molecular characterization. However, recurrence or distant metastasis still occurs even with the most recent efficient therapies. Thus, a better understanding of the different factors underlying tumor escape is mainly mandatory. Among the leading candidates is the continuous interplay between tumor cells and their microenvironment, where extracellular vesicles play a significant role. Among extracellular vesicles, smaller ones, also called exosomes, can carry biomolecules, such as lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, and generate signal transmission through an intercellular transfer of their content. This mechanism allows tumor cells to recruit and modify the adjacent and systemic microenvironment to support further invasion and dissemination. By reciprocity, stromal cells can also use exosomes to profoundly modify tumor cell behavior. This review intends to cover the most recent literature on the role of extracellular vesicle production in normal and cancerous breast tissues. Specific attention is paid to the use of extracellular vesicles for early BC diagnosis, follow-up, and prognosis because exosomes are actually under the spotlight of researchers as a high-potential source of liquid biopsies. Extracellular vesicles in BC treatment as new targets for therapy or efficient nanovectors to drive drug delivery are also summarized.

Extracellular vesicles: An overview of biogenesis, function, and role in breast cancer

Extracellular vesicles have emerged as important mediators of intercellular communication and play an active role in cancer, including breast cancer. Despite limited studies, initial observations suggest that these vesicles are important in breast physiology and pathophysiology. We here, in brief, describe their potential use as future biomarkers and therapeutic agents in breast cancer. Extracellular vesicles in blood and breast fluid may have a great potential to detect and predict the presence of breast cancer, and extracellular vesicles modulation may emerge as a therapeutic approach in cancer therapy.

Apocrine secretion: New insights into an old phenomenon

BACKGROUND

While apocrine secretion was among the earliest secretory mechanisms to be identified, its underlying basis remains poorly understood.

SCOPE OF REVIEW

This review reappraises our understanding of apocrine secretion using insights about apocrine secretion from the salivary glands of Drosophila, in which molecular genetic analyses have provided a glimmer of hope for elucidating the mechanistic aspects of this fundamental process.

MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

In contrast to the well-defined process of exocytosis, apocrine secretion is non-vesicular transport and secretory pathway that entails the loss of part of the cytoplasm. It often involves apical protrusions and generates cytoplasmic fragments inside a secretory lumen. In its most intense phase this process is accompanied by the release of large fragments of cellular structures and entire organelles that include mitochondria, Golgi, and portions of the endoplasmic reticulum, among others. Proteomic analyses revealed that the secretion is composed of hundreds to thousands of membranous, cytoskeletal, microsomal, mitochondrial, ribosomal, and even nuclear as well as nucleolar proteins. Strikingly, although many nuclear proteins are released, the nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid itself remains intact. In spite of this complexity, it appears that several protein components of apocrine secretion are identical, regardless of the location of the apocrine gland.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE

This type of secretion appears to be common to many, if not all, barrier epithelial tissues including skin derivatives and the epididymis, and is implicated also in lung/bronchi and intestinal epithelium. Apocrine secretion is a mechanism that provides the en masse delivery of a very complex proteinaceous mixture from polarized epithelial tissues to allow for communication at exterior interfaces.

Phenotypic plasticity in normal breast derived epithelial cells

BACKGROUND

Normal, healthy human breast tissue from a variety of volunteer donors has become available for research thanks to the establishment of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center (KTB). Multiple epithelial (K-HME) and stromal cells (K-HMS) were established from the donated tissue. Explant culture was utilized to isolate the cells from pieces of breast tissue. Selective media and trypsinization were employed to select either epithelial cells or stromal cells. The primary, non-transformed epithelial cells, the focus of this study, were characterized by immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and in vitro cell culture.

RESULTS

All of the primary, non-transformed epithelial cells tested have the ability to differentiate in vitro into a variety of cell types when plated in or on biologic matrices. Cells identified include stratified squamous epithelial, osteoclasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, neural progenitors/neurons, immature muscle and melanocytes. The cells also express markers of embryonic stem cells.

CONCLUSIONS

The cell culture conditions employed select an epithelial cell that is pluri/multipotent. The plasticity of the epithelial cells developed mimics that seen in metaplastic carcinoma of the breast (MCB), a subtype of triple negative breast cancer; and may provide clues to the origin of this particularly aggressive type of breast cancer. The KTB is a unique biorepository, and the normal breast epithelial cells isolated from donated tissue have significant potential as new research tools.

An ex(o)citing machinery for invasive tumor growth

Cancer cells communicate with the environment through delivery of surface proteins, release of soluble factors (growth factors and cytokines), and sophisticated nanovehicles (exosomes) for establishment of invasive tumor growth. This communication occurs in part through constitutive exocytosis, regulated exocytosis, or release of intraluminal vesicles, and is modulated by small Rab GTPases, the master regulators of vesicle traffic. We studied Rab GTPases implicated in regulated exocytosis and showed a unique role for Rab27B in invasive tumor growth. Emerging evidence indicates that various exocytic routes are implemented by cancer cells to relay crucial information for fostering growth, migration, and matrix degradation.

Selective release of microRNA species from normal and malignant mammary epithelial cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in body fluids are candidate diagnostics for a variety of conditions and diseases, including breast cancer. One premise for using extracellular miRNAs to diagnose disease is the notion that the abundance of the miRNAs in body fluids reflects their abundance in the abnormal cells causing the disease. As a result, the search for such diagnostics in body fluids has focused on miRNAs that are abundant in the cells of origin. Here we report that released miRNAs do not necessarily reflect the abundance of miRNA in the cell of origin. We find that release of miRNAs from cells into blood, milk and ductal fluids is selective and that the selection of released miRNAs may correlate with malignancy. In particular, the bulk of miR-451 and miR-1246 produced by malignant mammary epithelial cells was released, but the majority of these miRNAs produced by non-malignant mammary epithelial cells was retained. Our findings suggest the existence of a cellular selection mechanism for miRNA release and indicate that the extracellular and cellular miRNA profiles differ. This selective release of miRNAs is an important consideration for the identification of circulating miRNAs as biomarkers of disease.

The membrane mucin MUC4 is elevated in breast tumor lymph node metastases relative to matched primary tumors and confers aggressive properties to breast cancer cells

Introduction

Previous studies indicate that overexpression of the membrane-associated mucin MUC4 is potently anti-adhesive to cultured tumor cells, and suppresses cellular apoptotic response to a variety of insults. Such observations raise the possibility that MUC4 expression could contribute to tumor progression or metastasis, but the potential involvement of MUC4 in breast cancer has not been rigorously assessed. The present study aimed to investigate the expression of the membrane mucin MUC4 in normal breast tissue, primary breast tumors and lymph node metastases, and to evaluate the role of MUC4 in promoting the malignant properties of breast tumor cells.

Methods

MUC4 expression levels in patient-matched normal and tumor breast tissue was initially examined by immunoblotting lysates of fresh frozen tissue samples with a highly specific preparation of anti-MUC4 monoclonal antibody 1G8. Immunohistochemical analysis was then carried out using tissue microarrays encompassing patient-matched normal breast tissue and primary tumors, and patient-matched lymph node metastases and primary tumors. Finally, shRNA-mediated knockdown was employed to assess the contribution of MUC4 to the cellular growth and malignancy properties of JIMT-1 breast cancer cells.

Results

Immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry revealed that MUC4 levels are suppressed in the majority (58%, p < 0.001) of primary tumors relative to patient-matched normal tissue. On the other hand, lymph node metastatic lesions from 37% (p < 0.05) of patients expressed higher MUC4 protein levels than patient-matched primary tumors. MUC4-positive tumor emboli were often found in lymphovascular spaces of lymph node metastatic lesions. shRNA-mediated MUC4 knockdown compromised the migration, proliferation and anoikis resistance of JIMT-1 cells, strongly suggesting that MUC4 expression actively contributes to cellular properties associated with breast tumor metastasis.

Conclusions

Our observations suggest that after an initial loss of MUC4 levels during the transition of normal breast tissue to primary tumor, the re-establishment of elevated MUC4 levels confers an advantage to metastasizing breast tumor cells by promoting the acquisition of cellular properties associated with malignancy.

The Pea3 Ets transcription factor regulates differentiation of multipotent progenitor cells during mammary gland development

The Pea3 Ets transcription factor is overexpressed in breast tumors suggesting that it plays a role in mammary oncogenesis. However, the normal biological function of Pea3 in the mammary gland is not known. Here we report that Pea3 was expressed in the epithelium of the mouse mammary anlagen commensurate with their genesis, and at later times in the nipple and mammary ducts of female embryos. In adult mice Pea3 transcripts peaked at the onset of puberty and early pregnancy, times of active epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation. Pea3 was expressed in all progenitor cap cells and rare body cells of terminal end buds, and in the myoepithelial cells of ducts and alveoli. Analyses of the mammary glands of Pea3-null mice during puberty revealed an increased number of terminal end buds and an increased fraction of proliferating progenitor cells within these structures compared to their wild type littermates. Tissue transplant experiments demonstrated that these phenotypes were intrinsic to the Pea3-null mammary epithelium. During pregnancy, mammary glands isolated from Pea3-null females had impaired alveolar development as revealed by a decreased fraction of alveolar structures. We performed in vitro colony forming assays of mammary epithelial cells and discovered that loss of Pea3 altered the distribution of specific multipotent progenitor cells. Double-immunofluorescence confirmed that multipotential progenitors co-expressing markers of the myoepithelial and luminal epithelial lineage were amplified in the mammary glands of Pea3-null mice by comparison to their wild type counterparts. We propose that Pea3 functions in multipotential progenitors to regulate their lineage-specific differentiation potential.

Immunohistochemistry using antibodies to the cathelicidin LL37/hCAP18 in the tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii

Antibodies to the human cathelicidin, hCAP18 have been used to examine epithelial tissues of adult and pouch young marsupials. Immunoreactivity was observed in skin, gastrointestinal tract, lung and mammary node of adults as well as skin, gastrointestinal tract, lung and bone marrow of pouch young. The locations of expression were similar to that reported in human tissues. Although the antibody to hCAP18 is primarily directed at the C-terminal antimicrobial peptide LL37, our observations suggest recognition of a common conserved element of this cathelicidin and lead us to conclude that the epithelial tissues of marsupials are sites of production of cathelicidin. This is consistent with observations in other mammals but is the first report of expression of these compounds in marsupials.