Vimentin and Notch as biomarkers for breast cancer progression

Calaf,Gloria  M.; Balajee,Adayabalam  S.; Montalvo-Villagra,Maria  T.; Leon,Mariana; Navarrete M.,Daniela; González Alvarez,Raúl; Roy,Debasish; Narayan,Gopeshwar; Abarca‑Quinones,Jorge

doi:10.3892/ol.2014.1781

Vimentin and Notch as biomarkers for breast cancer progression

Authors:
- Gloria M. Calaf
- Adayabalam S. Balajee
- Maria T. Montalvo-Villagra
- Mariana Leon
- Daniela Navarrete M.
- Raúl González Alvarez
- Debasish Roy
- Gopeshwar Narayan
- Jorge Abarca‑Quinones
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Affiliations: Institute for Advanced Research, Tarapacá University, Arica 8097877, Chile, Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA, Departament of Health Science, Faculty of Science, Tarapacá University, Arica 8097877, Chile, Department of Pathology, Dr. Gustavo Fricke Hospital of Viña del Mar, Valparaiso 2581907, Chile, Department of Natural Sciences, Hostos College of the City University of New York, Bronx, NY 10451, USA, Department of Human Molecular Genetics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India, IREC, School of Medicine, IREC, St. Luc Hospital, University of Louvain, Brussels 1200, Belgium
Published online on: January 3, 2014 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2014.1781
Pages: 721-727

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Abstract

Breast cancer, the most common spontaneous malignancy diagnosed in women, is a classical model of hormone dependency as it is associated with prolonged exposure to female hormones. Different cytoplasmic proteins are important in the transformation of a normal cell to an invasive tumor cell, and these include vimentin and Notch. To investigate the importance of these two genes and proteins in breast carcinogenesis, we used an in vitro breast cancer model system, in which an immortalized human breast epithelial cell line, MCF‑10F, was malignantly transformed by exposure to low doses of high linear energy transfer α particle (150 keV/µm) radiation and subsequent growth in the presence or absence of 17β‑estradiol. This model consisted of human breast epithelial cells in different stages of transformation: i) a parental cell line (MCF‑10F), ii) an Estrogen cell line (MCF‑l0F continuously grown with estradiol at 10‑8), iii) a malignant and non-tumorigenic cell line (Alpha3), iv) a malignant and tumorigenic cell line (Alpha5) and v) a Tumor2 cell line derived from a xenograft of the Alpha5 cell line injected into nude mice. Vimentin and Notch showed greater expression in the Alpha5 and Tumor2 cell lines compared with that in the non‑tumorigenic cell lines, MCF‑10F, Estrogen and Alpha3. In the present study, positive staining for vimentin was found in 21% of cases. Vimentin and Notch protein expression was negative in noninvasive ductal carcinoma biopsies from breast cancer patients. However, positive cell expression was observed in invasive ductal carcinoma biopsies. These biomarkers can be considered important indicators of breast cancer progression and can be added to the diagnostic panel when overall survival is a primary end‑point.

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