Actions and Substrates for the HER4 Tyrosine Kinase in Breast Cancer.
Abstract
During the third year of our HER4 grant, we have made progress in developing methods and cell lines to study the potentially unique role of HER4 in breast cell differentiation. These reagents will help us elucidate the potential oncogenic or anti-oncogenic role of HER4 signaling pathways. We have examined breast cancer cell lines that do or do not express HER4 and have demonstrated in at least one that heregulin-dependent HER4 activation results in an anti-proliferative response. We have determined that these cells, under the influence of heregulin increase their production of neutral lipids, a marker of differentiation. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated that the differentiated cells had a greater than 2N DNA content indicating a G2/1M arrest or endoreduplication. In addition, we created a new cell line by infecting a retroviral versus expressing HER4 and the neo-gene, we then selected cell lines which expressed HER4. This model also exhibited HER4-dependent differentiation. We have devised a flow cytometry assay for assessing the production of neutral lipids as a marker of breast cell differentiation and have begun the task of creating HER4 monoclonal antibodies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA377182
Entities
People
- H. S. Earp
Organizations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill