Open AccessNutritional channels in breast cancer
Author(s) -
Godoy Alejandro,
Salazar Katherine,
Figueroa Carlos,
Smith Gary J.,
de los Angeles Garcia Maria,
Nualart Francisco J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of cellular and molecular medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.44
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1582-4934
pISSN - 1582-1838
DOI - 10.1111/j.1582-4934.2008.00544.x
Subject(s) - glut1 , breast cancer , biology , cancer research , cancer , subcellular localization , glucose transporter , cancer cell , pathology , glucose transporter type 1 , grading (engineering) , endocrinology , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , genetics , cytoplasm , ecology , insulin
Breast cancers increase glucose uptake by increasing expression of the facilitative glucose transporters (GLUTs), mainly GLUT1. However, little is known about the relationship between GLUT1 expression and malignant potential in breast cancer. In this study, expression and subcellular localization of GLUT1 was analysed in vivo in breast cancer tissue specimens with differing malignant potential, based on the Scarff‐Bloom‐Richardson (SBRI, II, III) histological grading system, and in vitro in the breast cancer cell lines, MDA‐MB‐468 and MCF‐7, and in MDA‐MB‐468 cells grown as xenografts in nude athymic BALB/c male mice. In situ hybridization analyses demonstrated similar levels of GLUT1 mRNA expression in tissue sections from breast cancers of all histological grades. However, GLUT1 protein was expressed at higher levels in grade SBRII cancer, compared with SBRI and SBRIII, and associated with the expression of the proliferation marker PCNA. Immunolocalization analyses in SBRII cancers demonstrated a preferential localization of GLUT1 to the portions of the cellular membrane that faced neighbouring cells and formed ‘canaliculi‐like structures’, that we hypothesize could have a potential role as ‘nutritional channels’. A similar pattern of GLUT1 localization was observed in confluent cultures of MDA‐MB‐468 and MCF‐7, and in MDA‐MB‐468 cells grown as xenografts, but not in the normal breast epithelial cell line HMEC. However, no relationship between GLUT1 expression and malignant potential of human breast cancer was observed. Preferential subcellular localization of GLUT1 could represent a physiological adaptation of a subset of breast cancer cells that form infiltrative tumours with a nodular growth pattern and that therefore need a major diffusion of glucose from blood vessels.