Primary Cilia in Breast Cancer Progression
Abstract
Primary cilia (PC) are solitary, sensory organelles that are critical for several signaling pathways. The purpose of this project is to determine the function of PC in breast cancer. First, we demonstrated that PC are more frequent in interlobular fibroblasts and myoepithelial cells than luminal cells in normal human breast. Of 26 breast cancers, rare PC were identified in cancer epithelial cells in only 1 cancer, which was of the triple negative subtype. In 11 breast cancer cell lines, PC were present at low frequency in 4, but were absent in the remainder. The cancer lines with PC were of the basal B subtype, analogous to the clinical triple negative subtype. Our data indicate a decrease of PC in breast cancer and an association of PC with the basal B subtype. Next, we developed mouse models with deletion of PC in epithelial or myoepithelial cells of the mammary gland for evaluation of the function of PC in development and cancer. We confirmed that Ift88 was deleted in the mammary gland of Cre-positive mice and that PC were disrupted. Nevertheless, minimal disruption to normal mammary development was observed. Studies to determine the role of PC in tumor progression are ongoing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA601708
Entities
People
- Andra Frost
- Rosa Serra
Organizations
- University of Alabama