Caspase Deficiency: Involvement in Breast Carcinogenesis and Resistance
Abstract
This project was designed to study the incidence and significance of caspase deficiency in breast cancer carcinogenesis and resistance. Task 1 for the first 15 months was to detect caspase expression in breast cancer cell lines and breast cancer tissues. In the past 12 months, we have expanded and cryopreserved 20 cell lines for future study. Detection of caspase expression from breast cancer cell lines revealed that caspase levels varied significantly amongst different cell lines. For example, caspase 6, 8 and 10 levels in HS-578T cells were significantly lower than that of other cell lines. Detection of caspase 3 expression in 40 breast cancer tissues using either immunohistochemistry or Western blot indicated that approximately one fifth of breast cancer tissues had abnormally low or deficient caspase expression. These data suggests that caspase down-regulation/deficiency may have clinical significance, which is consistent with our hypothesis. Caspase detection/screening is currently being continued. Another part of our work was on the characterization of caspase 3 reconstituted MCF-7 cells in response to chemo- and radio- therapies. We found that caspase 3 reconstitution sensitizes MCF-7 cells to both chemo- and radio- therapies. The results have been presented at meeting and a manuscript has been submitted to Cancer Research (under revision).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA385741
Entities
People
- Xiaohe Yang