Open AccessThe morphologies of breast cancer cell lines in three‐dimensional assays correlate with their profiles of gene expression
Author(s) -
Kenny Paraic A.,
Lee Genee Y.,
Myers Connie A.,
Neve Richard M.,
Semeiks Jeremy R.,
Spellman Paul T.,
Lorenz Katrin,
Lee Eva H.,
Barcellos-Hoff Mary Helen,
Petersen Ole W.,
Gray Joe W.,
Bissell Mina J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
molecular oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.332
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1878-0261
pISSN - 1574-7891
DOI - 10.1016/j.molonc.2007.02.004
Subject(s) - cell culture , biology , phenotype , cell , gene expression , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , signal transduction , transduction (biophysics) , cell type , cancer research , computational biology , genetics , biochemistry
3D cell cultures are rapidly becoming the method of choice for the physiologically relevant modeling of many aspects of non‐malignant and malignant cell behavior ex vivo. Nevertheless, only a limited number of distinct cell types have been evaluated in this assay to date. Here we report the first large scale comparison of the transcriptional profiles and 3D cell culture phenotypes of a substantial panel of human breast cancer cell lines. Each cell line adopts a colony morphology of one of four main classes in 3D culture. These morphologies reflect, at least in part, the underlying gene expression profile and protein expression patterns of the cell lines, and distinct morphologies were also associated with tumor cell invasiveness and with cell lines originating from metastases. We further demonstrate that consistent differences in genes encoding signal transduction proteins emerge when even tumor cells are cultured in 3D microenvironments.