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Morphological Characterization of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells
Author(s) -
Jogalekar Manasi P,
Serrano Elba E
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.lb29
Subject(s) - cancer cell , cell culture , extracellular matrix , triple negative breast cancer , confocal microscopy , cancer , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , spheroid , biophysics , breast cancer , monolayer , pathology , biology , medicine , biochemistry , genetics
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by the lack of receptors for estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) and human epidermal growth factor (HER2). Reports suggest that cancer cells maintained in three‐dimensional (3D) cultures are biologically more similar than monolayer cultures to in vivo tumor tissue. We undertook the current study to enable design of a 3D platform that may afford success in developing interventions to treat TNBC. To this end, we determined the morphological impact of growing a triple negative breast cancer cell line, HCC70 in monolayer culture on tissue culture polystyrene, as compared with growth in 3D culture using extracellular matrix Geltrex™. When we analyzed the morphology of cells in culture at the resolution of light microscopy using phase contrast and laser confocal imaging methods, we found that monolayer cells appeared flat, adhered to the polystyrene surface, and formed clusters with neighboring cells. In contrast, matrix‐organized cells formed compact spheroids. Ultra‐structural characterization was achieved using quantitative analysis of images captured with transmission electron microscopy. Our results showed that the 3D cultures had a higher number of mitochondria, autophagic vacuoles and intercellular junctions than those present in monolayer cultures. In addition, 3D cultures had membrane protrusions which were not present in monolayer cultures; we hypothesize that these structures may play an important role in matrix invasion. Our results demonstrate that the morphology of triple negative breast cancer cells is influenced by the surrounding environment. Our results suggest that 3D culture systems may provide a useful alternative platform for testing anti‐cancer treatments in triple negative breast cancer cell lines as compared to monolayer culture systems. Support or Funding Information NIH grant P50GM068762 and the New Mexico State University's (NMSU) Manasse Endowment to Dr. Elba Serrano.